Sept. 8 - Oct. 8, 2005

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS is pleased to kick off the 2005 fall art season with a solo exhibition entitled "Out of Morocco" by Ignacio Burgos. The exhibition features the Spanish–born artist's new paintings and drawings produced in Tangier, Morocco, where he recently moved from Madrid.

Burgos' expressionistic work captures both dramatic and un-dramatic moments of life. Following his Spanish predecessors Velázquez and Goya, Burgos tries to maintain a balance between the ordinary and extraordinary, timely and timeless, real and surreal. His art dazzles the viewer with misty splashes of paint, intense highlights, unusual perspectives, and dimensional distortions. Most recently, his two-panel paintings depict parallel scenes of distinguished subjects that seem unrelated each other. In the end, the mystery of Burgos' world creates the impact of a disturbing but refreshing dream.

Tangier, a multicultural city of Muslims, Christians, Jews, and foreign immigrants in Northern Morocco, has historically attracted artists, most notably Delacroix and Matisse, as well as the Beat Generation writers. In the 1940s and 1950s, the city was an International Zone and served as a playground for eccentric millionaires, secret agents, speculators, and gamblers. Apart from the unique light of the African sun and the breathtaking Sahara, it is this free, artistic spirit and fascinating people that most captivates Burgos.

The most visible Moroccan subjects in Burgos' new paintings are local animals such as camels and horses. (This is not so surprising since throughout his career Burgos has chosen to paint animals such as elephants, bulls, buffalos, and bears.) A "winning" horse is an especially favorite character that appears repeatedly. In one of his pair of paintings, a man in a traditional Moroccan robes with a camel and another man with birds are shown side by side. Burgos depicts these ancient subjects with fresh dignity and gracefulness.

Ignacio Burgos was born in Madrid in 1967. Between 1986 and 1991 he studied painting at Complutense University of Madrid. After his graduation, he studied for two years at Hochschule der Künste, Berlin (the Berlin University of the Arts). Between 1994 and 1998, Burgos lived and worked in New York City. Soon after his return to Madrid, he took a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. Burgos has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Europe and produced several significant catalogs. In New York, M.Y. ART PROSPECTS has organized solo exhibitions of Burgos in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003.

Project Room
September 8 - October 8, 2005
Opening reception, Thurs., Sept. 8, 6-8pm

M.Y. ART PROSPECTS' Project Room presents sculptural paintings by Pouran Jinchi. In her "Alef" Series (2004), each painting, measured 5 in. by 5 in., is devoted to one of the 33 Persian (Farsi) letters. The artist's intention is to call attention to the beauty of the forms of Arabic script by focusing on a single character as her subject. The title "Alef" refers to the name of the first letter of Farsi, Arabic, and Hebrew alphabets.

"After 9/11 it became apparent that very few people in the U.S. could understand these letters except small number of academics and individuals with special interest in the subject, whereas English letters are globally familiar. My work is not about teaching anyone Farsi, but about making the look of a foreign language familiar to the viewer. Familiarity brings comfort and takes away fear." Jinchi says.

Persian, also known as Farsi, is one of the most widely spoken Indo-European languages. Persian has its roots in Iran, and is spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, and (in a more archaic form) the mountain plains of Pamir. Farsi was also historically spoken in the markets and mosques of most of the Mesopotamian Valley stretching all the way to India. The Persian language has been influenced by Arabic since the Arab invasion of Persia in the seventh century.

The series is comprised of 99 paintings of the 33 letters of the Persian alphabet, each rendered in red, blue, and black, colors commonly used in Islamic architecture. For each color, the artist uses one distinctive style ranging from simple strokes to more complicated repetitive forms. At the same time, as is usual in her work, Jinchi avoids abstraction or manipulation of the original forms. The painting is executed on canvas hardened and polished with layers of Elmer's glue, acrylic, and varnish. This sculptural quality along with the texture and color is reminiscent of Islamic ceramic tiles.

Pouran Jinchi's work explores contemporary expressions using the Persian language and particularly written forms such as poems. M.Y. ART PROSPECTS presented two solo exhibitions of the artist; "Rubaiyat" in 2000 and "Antworks" in 2001. Born in Mashad, Iran, Jinchi moved to the U.S. and graduated from George Washington University with an engineering degree. Her work is exhibited in the permanent collection of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Sprint Corporation Collection.


For further information about the artist and available work, please contact the gallery at 212 268 7132 or e-mail to MYartpro@aol.com