Preview: “Sacro Consumo” by Patrick V. McGrath Muñiz ~ opens Nov. 7th at La Luz de Jesus

“The present work responds to our consumerist society and it’s indifference to the global ecological and social injustices. As a painter coming from a Roman Catholic background and growing up during the 1980’s and 90’s in the island of Puerto Rico, the oldest colony in the Western hemisphere, I’m inspired by pop culture icons, Christian Iconography and mythological imagery present in Art History, Tarot and Astrology. These sources provide a set of universal archetypes that allow me to re-interpret our current socio-economic and cultural conditions holistically, viewing world history as cyclical and interconnected from an archetypal perspective. In my work I adopt painting techniques on canvas and “retablos” reminiscent of Spanish colonial art. This enables me to emulate earlier indoctrination strategies and devices from the time of the conquest of the Americas in order to provide historical continuity and a link between the Colonial and the Neo-colonial narratives. Living in an information age and Inspired by art history I recreate intimate 2-D theater stages where I appropriate, recontextualize and orchestrate figures from history, religion, mythology and pop culture into anachronisms, parodies and satirical narratives that mirror my experience of the world today.”