Modest Successes
By Adriana Melchor
The images that deck the city streets—in particular that local style of advertising used by small businesses—furnish the raw material Gibrán Turón uses to imaginatively build narratives out of what he encounters on his travels through the city. Jotting down quick drawings in his sketchpad and taking photographs along his path, Turón amasses a visual and textual compendium of shop signs and advertisements, some of which are made on fluorescent cardboard. Éxitos humildes (Modest Successes) is part of a cycle of exhibitions titled El dilemma de unir los puntos (The Dilemma of Connecting the Dots), which is being curated by the artist Néstor Jiménez for Proyectos Monclova. On this occasion, the artist has brought the pictorial processes that characterize public spaces to the walls of the white cube.
Making the mobile mural Amanecer distinto (A Different Dawn, 2024) required the artist to avail himself of the conservation technique called “strappo,” used to detach a wall painting from its original substrate. It involves placing a fabric soaked in a special solution on the painted wall, which enables it to adhere to the picture layer without damaging it, after which it is detached, and the piece transferred onto another surface. Working in consultation with the restorer Regina Tinajero, Turón has transferred one of his “street” murals in four sections, thereby turning it into a free composition of interchangeable large-format paintings. The traces of the wall on which this image was created are clearly visible, almost as if it were an archaeological find. This intervention allows us to imagine the layers of time sedimented in the original substrate, which has now come to adorn the white walls of the gallery.
The importance of the artist’s drawing notebook is worth underscoring, since it contains early versions of all the works on display. These are quick sketches that were made from Turón’s experiences, and for his own recordkeeping purposes. Very often they are residues of or testaments to everyday histories that get lost in the shuffle of daily life. By the same token, this collection of relatively unmediated traces is related to the brand design work he did on the walls and fences of a few local businesses and residences in Tepic, Nayarit. This notebook is thus also a catalog that is always ready to be offered to anyone who might require his advertising services.
Works like Fina estampa (Fine Stamp), Pipa paz (Peace Pipe), and Laguna sin voz (Voiceless Laguna) are made on muslin, a material commonly used in school settings to create backdrops for plays. The artist accidentally discovered the possibilities of this surface for getting his pieces to approximate surfaces that recreate the irregular conditions of walls. Turón makes one of his drawings on muslin and, almost in the manner of a fresco, spends entire days working on a layer of spray paint and graphite that gradually adds weight and density to the material, turning it into a completely rigid surface. In combination with this, the artist uses a range of fluorescent colors reminiscent of Risograph prints: pinks, greens, blues; tones that give a sensation of artificial shine. This way of presenting color is linked to the artist’s work as an illustrator, since he has self-published several of his works and photographic records. As a result, this aesthetics of immediacy, which recalls fanzines, derives from this other aspect of the artist’s creative work.
The series Infantiles (For Children) reclaims ads from a hair salon offering children’s haircuts. Each style is named after an adjective, suggesting the personality type you would acquire—“versatile,” “incorrigible,” “spoiled rotten”—just by having that kind of haircut. These pieces demonstrate the artist’s interest in commenting incisively on the scope of the politics of consumerism and wellbeing embedded in the advertising strategies of small neighborhood businesses.
Taken together, the works presented here by Gibrán Turón are snapshots of moments of everyday life, and at the same time excerpts from a visual culture mixed up by local forms of advertising. Nevertheless, there is a guiding thread through this large compendium of images that gradually weaves a story. Its characters bespeak small triumphs or moments when there is some feeling of comfort or good fortune. This pictorial project is uninterested in representing glorious pasts or imperial conquests, in contrast to the academic and historical painting of previous centuries.
Gibrán Turón has said that when he came to Mexico City, he felt a lot of stress, which led him to fall quite ill. With no money and no access to medical attention, he began to identify the moments when his illness would overtake him. He gradually recovered, which gave him great satisfaction. Knowing that he could understand his illness granted some relief to him and his family—a small triumph, and surely a modest success.
Acrylic, spray paint and graphite on interlining fabric
51.97 x 44.09 x 2.56 in
Acrylic, spray painting and graphite on interlining fabric
39.37 x 49.21 x 2.56 in
Acrylic on linen
23.62 x 15.75 x 2.17 in
Acrylic on linen
23.62 x 15.75 x 2.17 in
Acrylic on linen
23.62 x 15.75 x 2.17 in
Acrylic on linen
23.62 x 15.75 x 2.17 in
4 Strappo of street mural mounted on canvas
Dimensions 1: 37.48 x 21.65 x 2.36 in Dimensions 2: 39.45 x 31.5 x 2.36 in Dimensions 3: 35.51 x 35.55 x 2.36 in Dimensions 4: 35.47 x 35.51 x 2.36 in
Dyptich of acrylic on linen
Canvas dimensions 1: 39.49 x 47.24 x 2.17 in Canvas dimensions 2: 27.6 x 27.6 x 2.17 in
Acrylic on linen
9.92 x 13.86 x .98 in
Acrylic, spray painting and graphite on interlining fabric
22.83 x 16.14 x 2.2 in
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