Fluid Histories: Culture & Style

Artplex Gallery is thrilled to present Fluid Histories: Culture & Style featuring the remarkable talents of Juana Céspedes and Carlos Gamez de Francisco. This captivating showcase invites visitors to embark on a thought-provoking journey through the rich tapestry of cultural and stylistic narratives as interpreted by these two visionary artists. Through their distinct mediums, Céspedes and Gamez de Francisco weave together a captivating visual narrative that transcends boundaries and challenges conventional notions of art.

Juana Céspedes is inspired by the contagious joy of dance. “Dance inspires me. I love its contagious joy. I’m often carried away by the image of swing dancers on an endless journey, from partner to partner—a journey that started in Harlem and found its way across the world.” She imagines the convergence of souls in her hometown of Barcelona as city squares flood with dancers who are celebrating the return of warmer days. Watercolor allows the artist to depict human flow and unique folds in her handmade paper give her artworks dimension, alluding to the urban spaces which inspire Céspedes.

As an artist born in post-revolutionary Cuba, Carlos Gamez de Francisco paints a bright distorted reality in which he demystifies classical beauty and presents it as a process in its natural form. The figures in his portraits are superimposed and manipulated through the artist’s own experiences of historical figures and events. Heavily influenced by his Cuban upbringing in Russian-governed academia, Gamez de Francisco rethinks and questions the accuracy of historical narrative within the context of censorship of contemporary art and decontextualizes epochs and artistic symbols to establish a connection between the realities of the present and the past.

Since the opening of Artplex Gallery in 2018, the gallery continues to be one of the world's leading art galleries specializing in high-quality, original contemporary art representing a broad spectrum of major international artists. Right at home in West Hollywood and within immediate proximity to its sister gallery Artspace Warehouse, Artplex Gallery is an expansive modern space that specializes in international urban, pop, graffiti, figurative, and abstract art catering to the visual impact.