Reyes’ ambitious public art installation turned gallery exhibition explores the artists’ unique approach to graffiti, by dissecting individual letters and exploring the anatomy and architecture found in the symbols we use to communicate. Inspired by San Francisco’s streets, surfaces, and overall visual vibrancy, Reyes reinterprets the letters and presents them to us in a brilliant array of color and movement. These alphabets, recontextualized on various abandoned surfaces around the city, are not intended to provide answers, but to raise questions about how we interpret public spaces and the content assumed within.

Over the past 2 years, Reyes has been diligently painting freestanding alphabets within San Francisco [see a recent SF Chronicle feature article exploring this here] on its many vacant surfaces that resulted from the financial crash in 2008. What started as an initial impulse to push color and movement in a city with a long history of outdoor murals and graffiti has morphed into an attempt to inspire personal and public change in reaction to the economic downturn of recent years.

The individual letters painted in multitude have become an indiscernible narrative written in spray paint and acrylic house paints. These letters adorn trucks, fences, walls and rooftops throughout San Francisco. Alphabets have been strung together and carved out of forgotten spaces, exceeding his original intentions, multiplying in numbers.

Robert Berman Gallery
1632 Market Street, San Francisco, CA

July 7, 2010 - August 14, 2010

Reception: Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 6 – 9 pm

More info on Reyes at  reyes78.com

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