Private View Friday 20th August 1999 7.00pm - 9.00pm (exhibition opening, party until 2.00am)

Exhibition Dates Saturday 21st August - Sunday 5th September 1999

Opening Times Tuesday to Saturday 12 midday - 12 midnight, Sunday 10.00am-6.00pm

Presented by AllegedFineArts / 291 Gallery

with support from Levi’s Vintage

Mark Gonzales started out as a Los Angeles skateboarder and has become not only a professional skateboard legend but also one of the most renowned artists within American youth culture today.

In the early 80s his first art works emblazoned the bottom of his skateboards and in recent years he has broadened out into writing short stories and poems, acting and making visual art works which take the form of paintings and sculptures. Works for his current show also includes the use of film and video.

The work he produces reflects the raw energy of youth along with a razor sharp wit, and cover a wide variety of themes from love to religion, fashion, sex and the media.

Gonzales’ colourful paintings and childlike drawings follow his individualistic approach to life and are both comical and insightful. As with all his creative activities he purposely avoids following given parameters and is an expressionist in the truest sense of the word. Comparable to the ease with which he moves (skates), he possesses an extreme naturalness in his art. Uninhibited as a personality his works derive from his imagination, and are guttural in expression, combining (unintentionally) dyslexic text, cartoon-like characters and vivid direct imagery. Ironically, 31 year old Gonzales maintains that most things he creates are taken from personal experiences or from television shows he watched when he was younger. Portraits of, or references to Howard Hughes, Warren Buffet and Malcolm Forbes are characters commonly featured - all millionaires - Gonzales’ obsession.

For his 1999/2000 five city tour (London, Berlin, Tokyo and New York), Gonzales kicks off with 291 as his London venue and premier in the UK.

New works for 291 include luscious paintings and super sheened sculptures including Sphinx, Priest, and three new video works. Two of his publications Broken Poems, and Social Problems (published in 1998) will be sold at the show.