PATRICK MCGRATH MUÑIZ arket ish M n a p S show 28th
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atrick McGrath Muñiz’s work responds to consumer media culture and the historical use of Christian icons in colonial Latin America. As a painter, growing up in Puerto Rico, one of the oldest colonies in the world and at the same time one of the countries with most cars per square mile, he explores the relationship between traditional icons and the modern-day consumer society.
2 The paintings project a world filled with unexpected anachronisms where spirituality is transgressed by triviality. Religious symbols lose their original meaning and are amorally converted into disposable marketplace products from the media culture.
This recontextualization of the “retablo” altarpiece painting imported from the Old World in colonial times allows him to question today’s assumptions about the demise of colonialism. By utilizing the “retablo” format, Patrick can emulate previous indoctrination strategies and question the imported set of values from the corporate global economy. The “retablos” act then as purveyors of the belief system intrinsic to a capitalist society, which, assuming control over the media, diffuses the pervasive corporate propaganda and manufactures mass consent with its offers of salvation. While these religious icons lose their aura of sanctity displaced by some product or celebrity, these in turn seem to gain a pseudo-religious position. In some of his paintings, the cult to TV celebrities and movie stars pretends to take over every possible space, reaching a ubiquitously self-centered divinity status. Many of the “retablos” that he has created are paintings distributed in three united plates. These triptychs operate as history books meant to be read carefully ‘between the lines’. The lines in this case are the constant commercial interruptions implicit in the message. The work intends to pronounce a commentary about how the neoliberal globalization, with its consumerist doctrines, transmitted by the media, have altered dramatically the way we understand religion, live, and relate to each other and our environment. Through a redefinition of our cultural identity and establishing a dialogue with history, Patrick McGrath intends to confront the intolerable historic amnesia that affects us all. Patrick McGrath Muñíz (born 1975; New York) is an American painter. He has received a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia in 2006 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting at Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He currently lives and works in Texas.
Cover: Patrick McGrath Muñiz, Diluvium, oil and metal leaf on panel, 45 x 30 (detail, view entire painting on page 4)
Selected Collections: Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, Albuquerque, NM Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Mesa, AZ Museo de Arte de Aguadilla, Aguadilla, PR Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA Selected Awards and Honors: Francisco de Goya Award, Sala Barna Global Present Art, Barcelona, Spain, 2008 Prima Opera, AICA Awards (International Association of Art Critics), San Juan, PR, 2007 Best of Show, “Divine Inspiration”, Gallery RFD, Swainsboro, GA, 2006 Academic/Artistic Honors Fellowship, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA., 2004 Gelman Foundation Scholarship, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA., 2004 Education: Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA: MFA (Summa Cum Laude) Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, PR: BFA Painting (Magna Cum Laude)
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Diluvium, oil and metal leaf on panel, 45 x 30 CLICK FOR INQUIRY
© EVOKE Contemporary 550 south guadalupe street santa fe, NM 87501 505.995.9902
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The Tree of Human Progress, oil and gold leaf on tondo panel, 24 inches diameter 6
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open and closed panels
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Pipe Dream Divine, oil and metal leaf on triptych wood panel, 24 x18 CLICK FOR INQUIRY
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La Copa Sagrada, oil and gold leaf on panel, 25.5 x 17.5 10
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© EVOKE Contemporary 550 south guadalupe street santa fe, NM 87501 505.995.9902
open and closed panels
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George’s Predicament, oil and gold leaf on triptych panel, 33 x 48.5 CLICK FOR INQUIRY
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Kronofernalia, Oil on triptych panel, 24 x 18 14
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open and closed panels
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Divine Provider, oil and gold leaf on panel, 23.5 x 11.5 CLICK FOR INQUIRY
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The Revelation, oil and gold leaf on panel, 47 x 36 18
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Holy Combo I, oil on panel, 24 x 30 CLICK FOR INQUIRY
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Holy Combo III, oil on panel, 24 x 30 22
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Holy Combo IV, oil on panel, 24 x 30 CLICK FOR INQUIRY
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The Revelation, oil and gold leaf on panel, 47 x 36 (detail, view on page 17)
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