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Press Release

Monumental Pencil Drawing
To Be Featured In March Exhibition
At ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries

One of the world’s largest pencil and charcoal drawings, a monumental 36-by-eight-foot mural, will be featured in “Maniera Obscura / In a Dark Manner: 1998-2005,” an exhibition opening from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Mar. 4th, with a reception for the artist at ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, 169 Madeira Ave., Coral Gables , Florida.

The event is the first major show in the United States of Hugo Crosthwaite, a 34-year-old artist from Tijuana. Mexico.

All of the works in the exhibition are done in pencil or pencil and charcoal. “I love the immediacy and tactility of drawing, the breaking of the white surface with images from my own personal narrative,” Crosthwaite says. Combining classical imagery with abstract elements, he considers each work “to be a vision of mine in which history, mythology and abstraction collide.”

“Crosthwaite is an anachronism: a contemporary artist who produces monumental work using a 19th century technique,” said veteran art dealer Virginia Miller. “He is an extraordinary young artist, one with an exceptionally powerful vision.”

According to Crosthwaite, artists who have inspired his work include Francisco Goya, Eugene Delacroix, Theodore Gericault and Arnold Bocklin.

Crosthwaite’s prior solo exhibitions in Mexico and the United States include “Tablas de una Novena” at Tijuana’s Cultural Center (CECUT) in 2000; “Urbe Tenebrosa” at Tijuana’s State Gallery in 2001, “On the Border of Surrealism” at Daniel Saxon Gallery, Los Angeles in 2002, and “Caprichos” at Trópico de Nopal, Los Angeles, in 2004.

The artist’s works have also been included in a number of collective exhibitions throughout the United States and Mexico. In 2004 his work was included in the “XII Bienal Rufino Tamayo” at the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, and “Mujeres de Juárez: Art Against Crime,” an exhibition of works at the Hispanic Museum of Nevada in Las Vegas by artists protesting the violence against women in Juarez, Mexico.

In 2003 Crosthwaite was commissioned by the City of Los Angeles to participate in the mural project, “The Wall–Las Memorias,” a monument created to educate the Latino Community about cultural denial and HIV/AIDS, and an effort to eternally honor loved ones who have died of AIDS. Next year he will participate in a group exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.

“Human suffering and violence permeate my work,” the artist notes. “I explore the complexities of human expression, everything from alienation to acceptance and even celebration.”

In the October issue of NY Arts magazine, critic Victor Alejandro Sorell noted that “Hugo Crosthwaite harkens back to the complex and dense compositions of Hieronymus Bosch and muralist José Clemente Orozco.”

In her review of a recent exhibition, arts writer Holly Myers noted that “rendered in pencil and charcoal on wood, the works teem with bodies that are stretching, writhing, rising and falling, suspended amid black clouds and fragments of landscape. They’re dark, deep, heartfelt works that tower over the rest of the show like a daunting spiritual conscience.”

Based upon her 38 years’ of experience dealing in contemporary fine art, Virginia Miller believes the young artist is on the threshold of greatness. “Hugo Crosthwaite’s unique, cutting-edge interpretations of human expressions and myths are superb art. If his career continues on its present course, within a very few years he will be a very important artist,” she said.

Located in downtown Coral Gables, ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries is Greater Miami’s longest-established fine art gallery. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and by appointment. The Crosthwaite exhibition will be on display through May 30th and his works also are featured on the gallery’s web site, www.virginiamiller.com. For more information, call 305-444-4493.

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