Artist Profile: Carlos Rodriguez Takes His Art from the Streets to the Galleries
Breaking Abstractions Brings B-Boy Art in a Different Direction
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Artgang Gallery is hosting a B-boy battle unlike most B-Boy battles. This one is frozen in time.
Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez is the artist behind the Breaking Abstractions exposition. The exhibit is composed of sculptures, sketches and paintings by the artist himself.
The layout of the gallery for Breaking Abstractions is made to feel circular, kind of like an area for B-Boys to square off.
The first thing that catches the eye is a large colourful piece of artwork that covers the entire back wall of the room. This piece is a mix of geometric figures and colourful nuances, abstractly suggesting a lively scene.
Smaller drawings are set along the three remaining walls, illustrating performers in acrobatic positions. In the center of the room is a sculpture of a figure in a B-boy pose. Surrounding it are several other sculptures representing different dance moves, strategically placed to recreate the circle that is usually formed around a dancing B-Boy.
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Each of Rodriguez’s works is linked to his strong connection with the B-Boy scene and his fondness for cubism, futurism, and constructivism, amongst other modern art movements.
“I’m a big fan of modernism,” Rodriguez explained. “A lot of my work, my study and my focus has been around that period because I find it relative to the hip-hop culture in a way. It gave me a lot of the context and the language to get to this point.”
Rodriguez grew up between the South Bronx and East Harlem—also known as Spanish Harlem—in the 70s and 80s when young MCs, B-Boys, DJs and graffiti writers were increasingly shaping the emerging culture of hip-hop. Graffiti writing on subway cars had gained popularity and an entire community of new artists had developed around it. Colourful tags, cartoons and elaborate murals covered almost all of the trains in the city.
“The pieces done here speak to me about the feel of the city, the community and the collaboration between the people.” —Rodriguez
By the age of 10, Rodriguez had discovered his passion for this art form. Along with his brother and friends, he would climb onto subway cars and spray-paint “Mare139” in different styles and colours.
As graffiti increased in popularity, galleries became increasingly interested in this new form of art. More artists were transitioning from writing on subways to writing on canvases. Rodriguez—looking for a challenge— also began experimenting with canvas painting. “You can only be underground for so long,” he said.
Rodriguez later discovered sculpting, seeing it as a way to extend graffiti writing beyond the canvas or the wall. He started crafting graffiti-like letters and incorporating graffiti elements to his sculptures.
Subsequently, he was asked to design and fabricate the Black Entertainment Television award, which, to this day, is given to hundreds of influential Black artists.
In putting together Breaking Abstractions, Rodriguez aimed to extract certain prominent breakdancing moves and illustrate them in their simplest form.
While some of the displayed works were fabricated in an abandoned steel mill in Pittsburgh, others were made here in Montreal. “The pieces done here speak to me about the feel of the city, the community and the collaboration between the people,” Rodriguez stated.
He was moved by the solidarity that manifested within the graffiti community after the passing of one of Montreal’s best known graffiti artist, Scaner, and feels that it is indicative of the graffiti community’s global interconnectedness.
From the streets of New York to the galleries of Montreal—often threatened and marginalized—hip-hop continues its incessant artistic evolution.
Breaking Abstractions // Carlos Rodriguez // Artgang Montreal (6524 Rue St-Hubert) // Sept. 8 – Oct. 1 // FREE
