"Janus" by Hugo Crosthwaite

PATTI DISCOVERED HUGO CROSTHWAITE. SMITHSONIAN HONORED HIM.

From an “ARTwalk” booth in April 2003 to Smithsonian recognition. Patti Cooprider, Art History Major, spotted works of Hugo Crosthwaite at San Diego ARTwalk and was so impressed she contacted Pierrette Van Cleve, art dealer who then immediately contracted Crosthwaite. And, like a Space X rocket his career took off. One of his San Diego galleries was Noel Baza, where "Janus" became part of the Cooprider Family Collection. The Smithsonian’s “National Portrait Gallery Prize” announced Hugo Crosthwaite the 1st-prize winner October 26, 2019. Coincidentally, that was Coop's 83rd Birthday!) Now Hugo is represented in LA and NY.

WHAT IS "JANUS"?

“In Roman mythology, ‘Janus’ was the god of doors and gates which symbolized new beginnings and transitions. These twins are conjoined, suggesting the interconnectivity of past and future" (see back of painting).

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Hugo Crosthwaite was born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1971 and grew up in the tourist-heavy beach town of Rosarito. He graduated from San Diego State University in 1997 with a BA in Applied Arts and Sciences. Currently, Crosthwaite lives and works between Southern California and Tijuana.

In 2013, Crosthwaite was chosen to represent Mexico in the California-Pacific Triennial curated by Dan Cameron. For this exhibition, inspired by the Mexican carpas, traditional tent shows that traveled along the border, he will create a site- specific mixed media installation. He was also included in the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art's The New World, for which he created a 42 foot mural titled Guadalupana March.

In 2012, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles mounted a solo exhibition, Tijuanerias, consisting of 102 drawings and installation exploring Tijuana's "Black Legend" which mythologizes the border city. In the same year, Crosthwaite was featured in several museum exhibitions including The San Diego Museum of Art's "Behold, America!" and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego's "The Very Large Array".

In 2010, reading a review in Art in America, Richard Harris commissioned Crosthwaite to create the opening work for Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection. The monumental, 25 x 11 ft. graphite on board drawing, Death March, was on view at the Chicago Cultural Center from January - July 2012.

For Crosthwaite's solo exhibition at The San Diego Museum of Art, Brutal Beauty-Drawings by Hugo Crosthwaite, he completed a monumental drawing entitled A Tail for Two Cities over a two-week period at the museum.

A partial list of Crosthwaite's solo gallery exhibitions include: Dark Dreams- Selected Works 1997-2010, Noel-Baza Fine Art Gallery, San Diego, 2010; Escape Rates Escaparates, Pierogi 2000, Brooklyn, 2009; Hugo Crosthwaite, Mason Murer Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 2008; Maniera Obscura/In a Dark Manner, ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries, Miami, 2005; and Caprichos, Trópico de Nopal Gallery, Los Angeles, 2004.

The artist's work has been included in numerous collective exhibitions throughout the United States and Mexico. Lion Hunt was selected by juror Carter Foster (Curator of Drawings at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art) for inclusion in the 22nd International Juried Show at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey. Untitled (Enfermas Facilmentes), received recognition in La Primera Bienal de Dibujo de las Americas (First Biennial of Drawings in the Americas) Rafael Cauduro Tijuana 2006. Chocada and Hombre Sobre Mesa were included in the VII Bienal Monterrey FEMSA de Pintura, Escultura e Instalación, in 2005 Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

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