Artlog

Bucheon is pleased to present a two person show for San Francisco artists David Choong Lee and Mars1 aka Mario Martinez. The ambitious show of mixed media painting and sculpture will open Friday, May 16, with a reception for the artists from 7-10pm and run through June 21, 2008. David arrived in San Francisco from Seoul, Korea in 1993 with little money and speaking very little English but found a way to study art. While studying he lived downtown where he was surrounded by homeless people who became the focus for his painting for many years. They became his friends,helped him with his English and in turn he used his formal drawing skills to capture very moving portraits. It has been exciting to see David’s work develop as he embraced the local art scene and learned the language and culture. He has been a teacher at the S.F. Academy of Art University where his ideas continue to evolve with help of other creative artists and his own fervent enthusiasm for painting. He also took a great interest in the underground music scene, and started d.j.ing as a new way to express himself. It is reflected clearly in his choice of materials like cigar boxes, his narratives and the lyrical quality of his work. Mario’s art has covered a lot of territory from spray paint graffiti as a young teenager to creating a series of wonderfully, strange vinyl figures that are exhibited internationally. Through his personal contemplation/meditation without a specific plan, Mars paints other worlds. His exquisitely detailed paintings range from unique abstraction to spacey, science fiction like landscapes. His influences range from the Hudson River School and go to elements of graffiti art, Japanese animation and of course science fiction and space. He improvises from his own drawings reconfigured many times until the imagery, color and composition come together. Mario will be showing for the first time his vinyl figures transformed into bronze and fiber glass along with a new series of paintings. Both artists collaborated on self published books of their work, and have been actively showing internationally in different venues depending on what they’re working on. Currently Mars1 is also participating in a show at the San Jose Museum of Art called “Evolution of a Cultural Icon”.