Robert Gutierrez
terrainMonger: paintings and drawings

8 January, 2004 – 21 February, 2004
Artist Reception: Thursday, 8 January, 2004 5:30 – 7:30 pm

Robert Gutierrez’s current work bears an aura of desperation in epic scale, signaling out-of-control environments where an ambiguous exchange of power and domination take place. Quasi-spiritual landmarks dot the landscape as if to warn of poisonous elements within the cracks and crevices of the overall terrain. Shifting images that seem familiar metaphorically enact a transformation of progress gone haywire.

Closely hovering over the works’ topography, the viewer experiences various vantage points of claustrophobic compositions simultaneously. These works depict a framework, a stage where gouged-out land masses, in one instance, proliferate with surveillance systems and military forts hidden from view. Gutierrez projects in these unique systems of coerced terrain, all the pleasures and fears of the collective mind, reflecting this shaky ground of time.

Robert Gutierrez holds a BFA from Otis Parsons, Los Angeles. He recently exhibited in “We Are Electric” at Deitch Projects, New York, and will have a concurrent show at New Langton Arts, San Francisco, as a featured artist for the Musée d’Honneur Minuscule. He lives and works in San Francisco.