Art buffs, Summer buffs, Mark Gabriel buffs, this is your jam.
I recently had the joy of attending the new art show opening at Galleria Militar in Todos Santos, Baja Sur, Mexico.

It was a brilliant evening showcasing the new exhibit, LOST DAYS OF SUMMER by the prolific Gabriel.

I will share some photos of the work and event but first, more about the artist.

Mark Gabriel is an award-winning multi-media artist who began his career in the underground comics and fanzine world while bashing away at his bass guitar in punk bands at night. Mark earned his Honors Baccalaureate Degree in Illustration from Sheridan College, graduating top of his class. He continued to developed his signature style working in book and magazine illustration before a career in film widened Mark’s palette. As muralist, scenic and storyboard artist, concept illustrator and set designer, Gabriel eventually found a new voice in Production Design, honing his visual story-telling skills over two decades in film and television.

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At the threshold of the desert and the sea, Mark Gabriel has tapped into the primal energy of the desert bringing an essential raw power to his art. A series of works called Marine Salvage Rights – where small scavenged pieces of driftwood become sculptural paintings of Flying Whales and Ranchera Musicians, acts as a gateway to large scale renditions of his subjects on stretched canvas and wood panels.

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Painting subjects the artist describes as dreamscapes inspired by ghosts of the desert and the movements of celestial bodies, these desert and seascapes are inhabited by mythical creature mash-ups of revolutionaries and birds, ranchero cowboys, musicians and stray dogs, as well as the flying “dream whales” of which he has become known. These characters all have stories – they occupy familiar yet exotic geography – they dance, they play, they fight, they love –  and they will reveal their secrets if you lean in. Look again, and again as these creatures take form and celebrate the light.

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Mark paints mostly with knife. As he scrape’s and slashes the paint – one can see how essential that energy is to his work. Acrylic is also good because it’s fast. The paint goes on thick and wild, then dabs of prevision. And if paint isn’t sufficient to the story, Gabriel employs ink, or mono-print, chalk and charcoal and oil stick. Some of the work requires collage and mixing of all of the above.

Mark Gabriel

Lost Days of Summer
 
On View
November 11, 2021 – December 31, 2021

Lost Days of Summer is a the continuation of last years Bye Gone Days x Retro Tropical Jetset series by Mark Gabriel, featuring socialites of the tropical jet-set.

This new series deconstructs the memories we have of the days gone past and brings it to present day.  These moments will live on and bring life to a whole new cast of characters; like the Starlets in Freefall, the Phoenix Divers… or the boys of summer. 

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“My interest in the tropical socialite has much to do with half-forgotten memories, the patina’d mirror of our own experience, blurs together with discolored family photos, mingles with glamorous magazine spreads and the silver screen, mixes with rat pack crooners like cocktails made in silver shakers. A dissociative fugue of champagne goblets and Frank Sinatra.”

Now go check it all out!

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