Hugo Crosthwaite: Carnivorall

Pierogi’s latest exhibit presents recent drawings by Hugo Crosthwaite. Included in this exhibition is a series of small notebook-size drawings in ink and wash that explore the artist’s process of visually consuming his surroundings like a predatory carnivore. He stalks images and feelings with a wryly humorous bent. He then recomposes them into a personal and improvised, carniva-lesque story.

In one drawing a woman who has recently finished a load of laundry leaves her tangled hair hanging to dry on a metal frame; in another, a coffee shop patron’s body is completely covered in tattoos, and in another, an elderly woman takes her rocking horse for a walk. These are images taken first from daily observation of the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn then regurgitated onto paper as a dreamlike fairytale that evoke a disjointed view of an unsettled realm lurking parallel to the safe, gentrified reality that we think we know.

“I let the act of drawing dictate my compositions, combining mythical and historical sources with contemporary provocations. Centerfolds, cartoon creatures, commercial facades and strange street characters populate my work, reflecting Mexican culture’s condition of colonization and its customization of American icons; all with the purpose of conveying a personal baroque narrative that resembles an abstract urban, chaotic sediment reminiscent of Tijuana, Mexico, the city I come from.”

Carnivorall will be on view at Pierogi from September 7th through October 7th. This will be Crosthwaite’s second exhibition at Pierogi.