Systematic Drawings

March 11 - April 11, 2008

Up and coming local artist Jesus De La Rosa will be showing, “Systematic Drawings,” a collection of abstract drawings at South Texas College’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery from Tuesday, Mar. 11 through Friday, Apr. 11, 2008. The exhibit is free and open to the public.

“This collection was inspired as a reaction to our culture’s existent hunger for complex aesthetics and instant gratification,” said De La Rosa. “The production of these drawings is rooted in printmaking, specifically mono-prints, as well as a reliance on the accident as used in the painting process. My goal was to find a method to make a unique drawing that was aesthetically intricate and seemed to be created by long, laborious and tedious hours, but took a faction of the time to generate and also defied a factory-made appearance.”

During the process of creating each individual drawing, a piece of canvas was dry brushed with powdered charcoal and then swatted on the support.

“The process is at once delicate and violent. Much like our own existence, each drawing is explicitly unique and carries specific characteristics from all the others. Viewed as a group, the unifying denominator is this uniqueness whose accidental nature is put into question as the “accident” is repeated time and time again,” added De La Rosa.

In addition to his developing reputation as an artist, not only the Rio Grande Valley, but across the state and nation, De La Rosa serves as a part-time art instructor at The University of Texas-Pan American. He uses his creative talents in his role a graphic designer for South Texas College, helping to develop the college’s cutting edge image. He is also the owner and director of the Progreso Art Gallery in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, where he provides opportunities to highlight the works of a variety of Valley and Mexican artists.

“We are so excited to show De La Rosa’s work which demonstrates how art can imitate life in a truly unique way,” said David Freeman, curator of STC’s Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery and STC art instructor. “He is a very talented artist that has already received tremendous praise and we hope that community members from across the Valley will come out and see his work, not only in support of a rising Valley star, but also because he may well be a household name one day.”

The STC Pecan Campus Art Gallery will host a reception for De La Rosa on Tuesday, Mar. 11, 2008 from 6-8 p.m. Community members, students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to meet the artist and get his perspective on his collection, the printmaking process and issues in contemporary art.

For more information about the exhibit call 872-3488