Acclaimed Artist’s “Essentialisms & Self-Discovery” Exhibit Opens in New York City

FRANCK DE LAS MERCEDES: ESSENTIALISMS & SELF-DISCOVERY
April 4 to April 30, 2022
Boricua College Art Gallery Bronx Campus
Opening Reception: April 7, 6-9 PM
New York – Boricua College presents, ESSENTIALISMS & SELF-DISCOVERY, a solo exhibition by Nicaraguan born artist Franck de las Mercedes.
Curated by Alexis Mendoza, the exhibit presents works tackling the vertiginous thinking and speed of contemporary existence. A public opening reception will take place on Thursday April 7, from 6pm-9pm at The Boricua College Art Gallery (890 Washington Ave, Bronx, NY 10451) and the show will remain on view through April 30, 2022.
Franck de las Mercedes is an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist living in New York City. De las Mercedes’ multifaceted body of work is noted for his intense use of color, jagged line-work and hieroglyph-like text layered in abstract patterns. Referencing memory, current events, family dynamics and sociopolitical topics, Franck’s body of work is a journey into an emotionally charged, multicultural landscape.
For this solo exhibition, De las Mercedes’ explores the concept of portraiture and how we understand the facets of identity. The works in the ESSENTIALISMS & SELF-DISCOVERY exhibit are both a personal and historic documentation of events that as a group declare “I exist”, and events that fail to take place or have not happened yet. Through pieces like “Procesión – 2021” de las Mercedes captures the tension, anxiety, and emotions in that split moment before something happens.
Documentation has become an essential element in the artist’s art form, and even becoming an art unto itself. Whether abstract, subtle or intimately detailed, this archival self-representation is inherently autobiographical in ESSENTIALISMS & SELF-DISCOVERY yet allows the viewer to put themselves in the image escaping into a world where De las Mercedes has full control.
Franck de Las Mercedes is represented by the CAMP Gallery and is currently exhibiting at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art.