July 3 - 31, 2021
From Presa House Gallery:
“Presa House Gallery presents a farewell event and opening reception for the solo exhibition of works by John Guzman. I Would Have Killed to Seen It, is a collection of six new large-scale oil paintings on view through July 31, 2021. The reception will be held on Saturday, July 3, from 7:00-11:00 pm, featuring DJ Jevonchi. Presa House will also be saying goodbye to Guzman, who will be leaving San Antonio for New Haven, Connecticut, where he will participate in NXTHVN, a year-long studio fellowship. John Guzman (b. 1984) is a painter born and raised on the South Side of San Antonio. He works with abstract figurative oil paintings that are responsive to his surroundings and impacted by people’s self-destructive lifestyles. His work uses broken, tangled, and dismantled anatomy to interpret the mental and physical deterioration witnessed throughout their struggle. Guzman sees his imagery as a form of documentation of the damage and effects on his well-being. Often his figures are positioned within domestic architecture, confined to inform the inextricable links between the environment and its inhabitants. “My fascination with the human form is the amount of abuse the body can endure. I’ve watched people push themselves to the limit, at times to death. I was a spectator to their transformation, to the damage of their mental and physical state until they were unrecognizable. My imagery represents this brutal and self-inflicted punishment and my first-hand experience of losing someone to that struggle.” Guzman has exhibited consecutively throughout San Antonio and completed his formal training at the Southwest School of Art in 2019. In July of 2021, Guzman was one of six artists chosen as a Studio Fellow in the NXTHVN fellowship program.
– – – –
NXTHVN is a new art mentorship and career advising program located in New Haven, Connecticut, founded by Titus Kaphar, Jason Price, and Jonathan Brand. This unique year- long residency and professional development program is tailored to participating artists and curators of color to expand networks, target career planning, and improve financial literacy as a working artist, combined with the time, space, and resources to focus on their creative practice. Learn more about NXTHVN at www.nxthvn.com”
Reception: July 3, 2021 | 7–10 pm
725 S. Presa
San Antonio, 78210 Texas
210.445.6997
Get directions