Mario Trejo: Idiosyncratic Tantrums

MARIO TREJO

Idiosyncratic Tantrums

MARIO TREJO

Idiosyncratic Tantrums

March 10 - April 22, 2023

Bruno David Gallery

7513 Forsyth Boulevard

Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, U.S.A.

info@brunodavidgallery.com

www.brunodavidgallery.com

Founder/Director: Bruno L. David

This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition

“

Idiosyncratic Tantrums” at Bruno David Gallery.

Editor: Bruno L. David

Catalogue Designer: Kenya Mitchell

Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David

Printed in USA

All works courtesy of Mario Trejo and Bruno David Gallery

Photographs by Bruno David Gallery

Cover image:

Within, (detail) 2019

Archival ink, enamel, pencil, ink on wood panel

48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

First Edition

Copyright ©2023 Mario Trejo and Bruno David Gallery

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery

CONTENTS

LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD / A BATTLEFIELD IS LOVE BY AMY ELLINGSON AFTERWORD

BY BRUNO L. DAVID

CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

BIOGRAPHY

LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD / A BATTLEFIELD IS LOVE

BY AMY ELLINGSON

Though small in scale, the works in Mario Trejo’s exhibition, Idiosyncratic Tantrums, boast grandiose titles: The Accumulation of Thousands of Ideas, Fears, and Triumphs into the Grand Edifice II; A Balance amidst Chaos and Horror; Illuminated Idiosyncratic Manifestations IV; Purpose; The Majesty of Cruelty; and No Answers. The titles imply that the struggles of artist-hood, both internal and external, are ever-present, ancient, and epic. To that secret society of fellow artists (the knighthood, the cadre, the corps of soldiers devoted to the project of ART) Trejo’s titles seem to whisper, “This is the life we’ve chosen. It’s difficult, yes. Though we may be destined to lose, it’s our duty and our privilege to fight this battle.” To non-artists, or to those with cynical dispositions, the grandiosity might appear to be manufactured, imagined, or overstated. To which, I’d argue: in this historical moment, creating art with a sense of import, purpose, life-or- death high stakes and, indeed, the very conditions of physical and psychic survival is a radical act. One intuits that Trejo lives and works within the framework of mythological archetypes. Indeed, as a former boxer and an avid student of military history, the artist is well aware of and informed by the dynamics of force, aggression, and domination. Their gentler counterparts—grace, precision, and strategic retreat—are in play, as well, in delicate balance: an homage to heroism.

What does it mean, then, to create works of art when one is of an embattled mindset? Trejo begins with discipline. His approach involves methodical mark-making in varied configurations. Oftentimes, this involves counting the marks as they accrue into a dense field. Other artists, such as the painter Robert Sagerman, similarly account for each mark. But, while Sagerman’s counting is a meditative, devotional act, Trejo seems more intent upon asserting his presence, creating order within chaos, and facing the infinite void. Each composition is a compact crucible for an entire roiling universe. There is a palpable angst in works such as Purpose which is, in effect, a grid that is simultaneously contained/orderly and expansive/explosive. It succinctly communicates the paradox of the proverbial caged bird; captive, but ever ready for flight of body and spirit.

Contained Space XI and its companions, Compound Catalyst and A Balance amidst Chaos and Horror, digress from Trejo’s more familiar compositions in that they comprise a multitude of orderly horizontal lines, resulting in Op-influenced, stratified fields that bend space and time as they continue around the sides of their panels. They provide an uneasy respite from the more aggressively energetic works, such as Two Spirits and Empirical, which employ arrays of incised marks over mysterious, amorphous fields, creating volatile atmospheres akin to portentous, intergalactic collisions.

More than anything, Trejo’s works (and words) throw down the gauntlet. They defy cynicism, trendiness, dilettantism, and a host of equally prevalent realities of today’s art world, opting instead for questions, ideals, processes, and concepts that are at once more urgent and more ageless. In his work, Trejo ponders his (and our) place in the universe; he considers a myriad of energetic forces, the truth of numbers, oppositional dynamics, and the micro/ macro dichotomies of space and time. Equally, his efforts wrangle with the futility of art itself, and the difficulty of devoting one’s life to an endeavor that may, quite possibly, be fruitless. As ever, these are the real issues. Mario Trejo makes a tentative peace with them; he grapples, struggles, investigates, and scrapes and scratches his way toward embracing their unwieldy complexity.

Amy Ellingson is an artist interested in contemporary digital experience and modalities of abstraction. Her work has been exhibited nationally and in Tokyo, Japan, and is held in various public collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Crocker Art Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Oakland Museum of California, the Berkeley Art Museum, and the US Embassies in Algeria and Tunisia. She is the recipient of the Fleishhacker Foundation Eureka Fellowship and the Artadia Grant to Individual Artists and has been awarded fellowships at MacDowell, the Ucross Foundation and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. Ellingson received a B.A. in Studio Art from Scripps College and an M.F.A. from CalArts, and was Associate Professor of Art at the San Francisco Art Institute from 2000-2011. Her public commission, Untitled (Large Variation), is an 1100 square foot ceramic mosaic mural, permanently on view in Terminal 3 at the San Francisco International Airport. She recently installed a large-scale mosaic mural at Sam Houston State University in Conroe, Texas, and is currently working on a commission for a new public work for the San Diego International Airport, which will be installed in 2024. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Amy Ellingson has lived and worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 2018. This text is one in a series of the gallery’s exhibitions written by fellow gallery artists and friends.

AFTERWORD

BY BRUNO L. DAVID

I am pleased to present Idiosyncratic Tantrums an exhibition by Mario Trejo. This is the artist’s second solo exhibition with the gallery.

Mario Trejo’s work features extensive accumulations that visually explore eternity and struggle through manic mark making. Considering the concepts of time, space, and number, He creates hundreds of thousands of marks, exhibiting conscious and sensitive attention to both detail and the whole. He begins to form small universes, each a relic of the arduous performance of repeated gestures. reconciling personal experience with the ideas of measurement and disorder in conceptual layers; the compulsive mark reflects the eternal battle between himself and his surroundings, but the product becomes a facsimile of the sublime remoteness of the universe in miniature, revealing at once loneliness, futility, chaos, and uncertainty. His current work is a metaphor for the fragile imperium under which we all reside.

Mario Trejo said, “I am fascinated with space, time, and numbers. I draw black accumulations of quickly executed idiosyncratic circles forming abstract compositions. These peculiar marks are a never-ending struggle with myself and my surroundings at a distance. These repetitive, meticulous, and time-based works are all attempts to visualize epic numbers of macrocosmic and microcosmic entities. The amalgamations of hundreds of thousands of circles in varying densities begin to resemble pocket universe, each a relic of an arduous performance of repeated gestures.

Mario Trejo was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri. He lives and works in Seattle, Washington. In 2005, he attended The Chicago Art Institute of Chicago, for his BFA. Mario received his Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I am deeply grateful to Kenya Mitchell, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Taylor Anderson, Jacob Hughes, Beth McDonald, Jada Ivy, Benjamin Levine, and Sammy Wood.

Within 2019

48 x 36 inches

Archival ink, enamel, pencil, ink on wood panel

Purpose 2022

Archival ink mixed media on wood panel

14 x 11 inches (35.6 × 27.9 cm)

2021-2022

Archival ink, clay and acrylic on wood

10 x 8 inches (25.4 × 20.3 cm)

The Accumulation of Thousands of Ideas, Fears, and Triumphs into the Grand Edifice II

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

The Majesty of Cruelty 2019

Archival ink, enamel, acrylic on wood

14 x 11 inches (35.6 × 27.9 cm)

Archival ink, acrylic on wood

10 x 8 inches (25.4 × 20.3 cm)

The Centrifuge 2022

8 x 10 x 1 1/2 inches (20.3 ×

A Balance admist Choas and Horror 2021

Archival ink and acrylic on wood

25.4 x 3.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Eon LIV 2019

Archival ink, enamel, acrylic, pen on wood panel 24 x 18 inches (61 × 45.7 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Compound Catalyst

2021

Archival ink and acrylic on wood

10 x 8 x 1 1/2 inches (25.4 x 20.3 x 3.8 cm)

Idiodon 2012-13

Archival ink, acrylic, enamel on wood panel 14 x 12 inches (35.6 x 30.5 cm)

Two Spirits 2018

Archival ink, acrylic, enamel, phosphorus

48 x 36 inches (121.9 × 91.4 cm)

wood

paint on

panel

2020

24 x 18 inches

61 x 45.7 cm)

Illuminated Idiosyncratic Manifestations IV

Archival ink, acrylic, enamel, gesso on wood panel

The Accumulation of Thousands of Ideas, Fears, and Triumphs into the Grand Edifice III 2021-2022

Archival ink, clay and acrylic on wood 10 x 8 inches (25.4 × 20.3 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink, acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 x17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink, acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 x17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink, acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 x17.8 cm)

Archival ink, enamels on panel 24 x 18 inches (61 × 45.7 cm)

Empirical 2016

Archival ink, clay, and acrylic on wood

11 x 14 inches (27.9 × 35.6 cm)

The Gandest Journey 2021-2022

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink, acrylic on paper

7 x 10 inches (17.8 × 25.4 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Contained Space XI 2022

Acrylic ink and acrylic on wood 4 x 4 x 1 1/5 inches (10.2 × 10.2 x 3.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

Untitled 2022

Archival ink and acrylic on paper

10 x 7 inches (25.4 × 17.8 cm)

MARIO TREJO

Mario Trejo’s works are accumulations of thousands of quickly drawn idiosyncratic marks. The amalgamations of hundreds of thousands of marks/circles/ lines in varying densities begin to resemble pocket Universes, each a relic of an arduous performance of repeated gestures.

Mario Trejo was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri and currently resides in Seattle, Washington. In 2005, he attended The Chicago Art Institute of Chicago, for his BFA. Mario received his Masters of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and was chosen from numerous graduating Bay Area artists to be included in Art Benicia’s Cream from the Top Exhibition, moderated by Kenneth Baker. While attending the San Francisco Art Institute, Mario founded the Ways and Means Independent Student Exhibition in 2008. He formed a group of inspiring art majors, who collaborated with Mario to raise money, designed and produced catalogs and rented and renovated a space for a two month period. Also within that year, Trejo was awarded a Root Division Grant via Mildred Howard to build Birdhouses in the Cohen Alley, which were also shown at the luggage store annex. In 2008, Trejo interned for the curator, Lance Fung, at the Site Santa Fe 2008 Biennial, Lucky Number Seven.

In 2009, Trejo was the exhibitions director for the Museum of Pocket Art. In 2011, Mario was on an experimental painting panel, moderated by William Conger. In 2012, Mario had two Museum shows, Elmhurst Art Museum and a two part show at the Illinois State Museum. In 2018, Mario released his second book titled “A Decade of Trejo’s”, which showcases Mario’s finest paintings, and actions from his entire ten years of his professional art career.

EDUCATION

2008 M.F.A., San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco ,CA

2005 B.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022 Bilingual: Abstract & Figurative Group Exhibition, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, MO (catalogue)

Seattle Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Seattle, WA

10 Years, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Japan

2021 Explore ART -Dart, Koki Arts , Tokyo, Japan

Museum of Pocket Art, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY

2020 Revolution, Antioch University, Los Angeles, CA

LOOK, Contemporary Calgary, Calgary, Canada

Flatbed Pictures, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

2019 Overview 2019, Bruno David Gallery , Saint Louis, MO

Seattle Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Seattle, WA

BLACK, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

Catch Good Signs!, Hakata Hankyu, Fukuoka, Japan

2018 Small is Beautiful, Bruno David Gallery, St.Louis, MO

Idiosyncratic Tantrum, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Japan

Sentients, K Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA

Art Market San Francisco, K Imperial Fine Art booth, San Francisco, CA

Seattle Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Seattle, WA

Introductions, Show, K Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA

The Laura and John Fraser Collection, Rockford Art Museum, IL

2017 OVERVIEW, Bruno David Gallery, St.Louis, MO

Seattle Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Seattle, WA

Accumulated relics of arduous performances of repeated gestures, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

2016 Art Kaohsiung, Koki Arts Booth, Taiwan

ART FAIR ASIA FUKUOKA, Koki Arts Booth, Kukuoka, Japan

Cultural Perspectives Part II, City of Seattle—Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle WA

Seattle Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Seattle, WA

Winter Show, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

2015 AND / OR, (Overview_2015), Bruno David Gallery, St.Louis, MO (catalogue)

Art:314, Contemporary Art Museum St.Louis, St.Louis, MO

Seattle Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Seattle, WA

Summer Group Show, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

Young Art Taipei-Contemporary Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, Taipei

Triumphant Nothing, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Japan

2014 OVERVIEW, Bruno David Gallery, St.Louis, MO

Summer Group Show, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago IL

Art:314, Contemporary Art Museum St.louis, St.Louis MO

In the Mix, K Imperial Fine Art, San Francisco, CA

ArtMRKT, K Imperial Fine Art Booth, San Francisco, CA

2013 Affordable Art Fair, Koki Arts Booth, New York, NY

Projected Edifice, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, MO (catalogue)

Eternity, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Japan

Winter Show Part II, Satoshi Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Winter 2013 Group Show Featuring Gallery Artists, Herrringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

2012 Emptiness, Koki Arts, Tokyo, Japan

Line and Plane, McKenzie Fine Art New York, NY

I Defy You All, Elmhurst Art Museum, Curated by Aaron Ott, Elmhurst, IL

Mystics: A Blessed Rage for Order, Curated by Elizabeth Ferrer, Director of Contemporary Art, Bric Arts New York, NY

Pulp II Works on Paper, Works with Paper, Maus Contemporary, Birmingham, AL

Unexpected Protocol, New Work by Deborah Karpman and Mario Trejo, Maus Contemporary, Birmingham, AL

Focus Four (part II), Illinois State Museum at Lockport,Curated By Robert Sill, Lockport IL

Catharsism, Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary, Canada

2011 Focus 4, University of Illinois Chicago Gallery, Chicago, IL

Is this painting? raumZWEI Gallery, Birmingham, AL

Centered, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, MO

2010 Firat Erdim: Sculpture and Drawings / Mario Trejo: New Work, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL

Gallery Group Exhibition, Roy Boyd Gallery, Chicago, IL

Mario Trejo—New Works, The Metropolitan Gallery, Saint Louis, MO

2010 In Space of Color, Chesterfield Arts, Saint Louis, MO

2009 Museum of Pocket Art Retrospective, The Lab, San Francisco, CA

New American Paintings, No 83, Juried by Lynne Warren, Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL

Flat Files, Saint Louis Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO

Mario Trejo: Catharsis, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, MO

2008 Cream from The Top, Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA

Site Santa Fe Biennial 2008, Lucky Number Seven, collaboration with Scott Lyall, Site Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM

Vernissage, Fort Mason, San Francisco, CA

Ways and Means, W.A.M. Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Shelters I, Luggage Store Annex, San Francisco, CA

Shelters II, Luggage Store Annex, San Francisco, CA

2007 Entropic Wisdom, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Evolution The Exhibition, Swell Gallery, San Francisco, CA

One Million, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

2023 Mario Trejo: Idiosyncratic Tantrums, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalogue)

2018 Mario Trejo A Decade of Painting, Essay by Mark Van Proyen

Seattle Art Fair VIP Select Card - Art Market Productions

2016 Seattle Art Fair Catalogue, Koki Arts Booth, Art Market Productions, Seattle, WA

2015 Mario Trejo Paintings 2008-2015, Essay by Meredith Tromble

AND / OR, Bruno David Gallery, St.Louis, MO (catalogue)

2012 Mystics: A blessed rage for order, BRIC Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, March 22-April 28, 2012. Page 11

2010 Museum of Pocket Art 2009, Forward by Meredith Tromble

2009 Mario Trejo Catharsis, Bruno David Gallery, Saint Louis, MO (catalogue)

New American Paintings 83 Midwest Edition, Open Studio Press. Jurried by Lynne Warren, Page 156-159

2008 Shelters, Mildred Howard Part I and II, Essay by Mildred Howard, San Fransisco CA

Ways and Means, Student designed, built and funded exhibition, San Francisco CA

San Francisco Art Institute Masters of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition

Catalogue 2008, Essay by Renee Green. San Francisco, CA

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ARTISTS

Antonio Ainscough

Sara Ghazi Asadollahi

Barry Anderson

Laura Beard

Heather Bennett

Lisa K. Blatt

Michael Byron

Ben Brough

Quinn A. Briceno

Bunny Burson

Lisa Bulawsky

Judy Child

Carmon Colangelo

William Conger

Alex Couwenberg

Terry James Conrad

Jill Downen

Damon Freed

Yvette Drury Dubinsky

Douglass Freed

Adrian Gonzalez

Richard Hull

Mee Jey

Kelley Johnson

Chris Kahler

Leslie Laskey

Justin Henry Miller

James Austin Murray

William Morris

Arny Nadler

Yvonne Osei

Patricia Olynyk

Charles P. Reay

Daniel Raedeke

Tom Reed

Frank Schwaiger

Eric Minh Swenson

Char Schwall

Christina Shmigel

Thomas Sleet

Buzz Spector

Andrea Stanilav

Cindy Tower

Mario Trejo