DENNIS MIRANDA
Dennis MiranDa
The Mask Never Lies
November 18, 2022–Janurary 7, 2023
Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | 505.988.3250 lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com
cover: Lord Byron, 2022, mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
Dennis Miranda: The Mask Never Lies
Dennis Miranda is a young emerging Mexican painter whose exhilarating works reflect on the human condition. With a focus on caricature, Miranda investigates a multitude of plastic and conceptual approaches towards unexpected depictions of the human form. His recent body of supremely imaginative works were created by using exquisite painterly technique to alter 19th century engravings printed by Johnson, Wilson & Co. Publishers. By morphing the faces of historical figures into electrifying parodies, Miranda lampoons the elite class of Victorian society and imbues their elegant, antique portraits with new, chaotic meanings. Ranging from fantastical to humorous to sardonic, Miranda’s invigorating and penetrating caricatures broaden the viewer’s perception and understanding of post-colonial contemporary society.
Caricature as an exaggerated form of portrait art, traces its roots to the 16th and 17th century when satirists used drawings to distort various features of a subject while retaining other aspects of the subject’s likeness. The distortions can be acerbic or amusing, biomorphic or grotesque, graceful or bizarre. All serve the purpose of imparting a message of some sort. Often used to poke fun at public figures and politicians, caricature has a rich heritage as a means of communicating social and political commentary as well as lampooning what an artist might consider overblown pomposity. Famous fine art caricaturists have included Hieronymus Bosch, Honoré Daumier, George Grosz, Ben Shahn, and Gerald Anthony Scarfe, among many others.
Dennis Miranda was born in Mexico City in 1993. Miranda is a self-taught artist who considers himself a product of a tradition called “El Tianguis,” an open air market business that has long been the alternative for the survival of countless Mexican entrepreneurs. His work has been exhibited internationally. He lives and works in Mexico City.
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Daniel Webster, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Alfred Tennyson, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Walter Scott, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Abraham Lincoln, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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William Cullen Bryant, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Thomas Jonathan Jackson, 2022 Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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George Peabody, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Fredrika Bremer, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25
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Richard Cobden, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Benjamin Franklin, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Anna Jameson, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Sir Joshua Reynolds, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Madame De Staël, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Henry Grattan, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Lord Henry Brougham, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Lord Palmerston, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Oliver Goldsmith, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Benjamin Disraeli, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Frances Anne Kemble, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Abigail Adams, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Rosa Bonheur, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Charlotte Brontë, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Louis Agassiz, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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William
Ewart Gladstone, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Sarah Siddons, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Empress Eugenie, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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William Wilberforce, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Samuel Johnson, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Alice Cary, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Charlotte Saunders Cushman, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Charles Dickens, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Papa Beato Pius IX, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Napoleon Bonaparte, 2022 Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Samuel Finley Breese Morse, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Napoleon III, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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John Caldwell Calhoun, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Madame d'Arblay, 2022 Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Frederick II, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Catharine Maria Sedgwick, 2022 Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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David Garrick, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Robert Fulton, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Duke of Wellington, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Edwin Booth, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Henry Clay, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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François Pierre Guillaume Guizot, 2022 Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
William Wordsworth, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Thomas Chalmers, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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Edward Gibbon, 2022
Mixed media on 19th century engraving, 10.25 x 8.25 inches
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54 Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | contact@lewallengalleries.com © 2022 LewAllen Galleries Artwork © Dennis Miranda