Reception: Friday, January , 29 – 5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Arlington - The Gallery at UTA is pleased to present "Whew...That's a Relief!" The Madcap World of John Hernandez, 1978 – 2015, a retrospective exhibition by San Antonio artist John Hernandez that spans four decades of creative activity. The brightly colored, cartoon-like images depicting bizarre narratives and quirky vignettes display the energetic playfulness slightly twisted by a dark sense of humor that are the hallmarks of the artist. Through a variety of media including prints, drawings, paintings, large and small-scale sculptural objects and monumental wall reliefs, installed alongside site-specific wall paintings, this exhibition has been organized to illuminate the highly colorful career of this imaginative Texas artist.

Curated by The Gallery at UTA Director, Benito Huerta, with items on loan from numerous public and private collections and museums, this selection of works illustrates a progression of ideas and techniques that Huerta has followed and admired since his first studio visit with Hernandez in 1985. As Huerta states in the exhibition catalog foreword, The exuberance, the color, the imagery, and the technical dexterity of John's work captivated him thirty years ago and continues to up to the present. Huerta further comments that the work confronts issues of power, whether personal or economic ... and incorporates visual content of our time: from comic book imagery to corporate iconography, from symbols of power to MAD magazine's "Spy" character, sprinkled with appropriated images of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth monsters and cars, mixed with Basil Wolverton inspired drawings; all spiced with color and mixed into his visual cauldron to conjure a unique and, sometimes, critical vision of the world.

There will be a reception on Friday, January 29 from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm with brief remarks at 6:30 pm. In addition, John Hernandez will present a gallery talk on Thursday, February 25 from 12:30 ? 1:30 pm. The exhibition, reception and artist talk are free and open to the public.

Note:The gallery will be closed during Spring Break, March 14 - 19, 2016

The Gallery is open 10 am - 5 pm, Monday through Friday, and noon - 5 pm on Saturdays. The Gallery is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building, FA169, at 502 S. Cooper Street, Arlington, TX. For more information contact Benito Huerta or Patricia Healy (817) 272-5658 or www.uta.edu/gallery.

The 2015 - 2016 exhibition schedule is made possible by the generous support of Arlington Camera, the Hanley Foundation, Hilton Arlington, and Nerwin & Martin. This exhibition and associated catalog were made possible by additional support from Arlington Camera, Paul and Claire Burney, the Center for Mexican American Studies, and the Kaleta A. Doolin Foundation.

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