Reception: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature the innovative works of Latin American artists, Kiko Sobrino and Ignacio Hábrika will be on view in Portal to Enigma. The exhibition is scheduled to run from January 17, 2012 through February 7, 2012 (opening reception: Thursday, January 19, 2012).

About Kiko Sobrino

Brazilian artist Kiko Sobrino’s work cannot be classified as classic or pop culture, figurative or abstract. Instead he paints images of visual poetry, combining various media and techniques including acrylic, ink, silk screen, and computer graphics on canvas and wood. Although aspects of his work are representational, he goes beyond recognizable forms in order to convey new ideas and inspire the visual imagination of his audience.
Sobrino infuses his art with a sense of the political, referring to ecological and social matters that are very much a part of modern everyday life. Indeed, each painting reverberates with layers of meaning, as representational forms are re-contextualized in new and surprising ways. Light and compositional elements render the work particularly edgy, reflecting a tension and discontent that the artist himself experiences as he observes the world. He calls this artistic process his research, a way of decoding his daily impressions of life — impressions intended to “help people in the way they see the world . . . and how they see themselves.”

About Ignacio Hábrika

In thoughtful, organic and imaginative compositions, artist Ignacio Hábrika pierces the very essence of what it means to feel and be alive in the contemporary world. Through richly toned paintings, oscillating between abstract and tangible, purely figurative and metaphoric, Hábrika intones a brave cadence of personal yet universal experience. Light permeates these paintings, with strongly enunciated line and precisely articulated form guiding us inward through the artist’s unique vision. Beautiful, character-filled texture evokes a sense of progression, evolution and transcendence. In this way, Hábrika’s paintings approach and confront the issue of adversity through expressive form and brushwork. “The subject matter is humanistic, universal and it proposes the desire of the improvement of individuals, the struggle against adversity,” the artist explains. “Plastically, it has a very unique style; I believe that those are the things in which I am looking to climb up the steps of my own staircase.”
Born in Mexicali, Mexico, Ignacio Hábrika’s works have been exhibited worldwide.


Exhibition Dates: January 17, 2012 – February 7, 2012
Reception: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, New York City
Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 11a.m. - 6 p.m.
Event URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Kiko_Sobrino.aspx and http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Igancio_Habrika.aspx