Chito

Lagos and Chito present Notes To…, an unfolding of new works on paper and sculptural pieces that comprise the artist’s first solo exhibition in Mexico. The show is proudly presented as a part of Lagos’ international invitational exhibitions program and on the occasion of Material Art Fair during Mexico City’s art week.

Chito’s new series elaborate the epistolary iconography of the NOTE, surreptitious communiqués to gain or pass along private information; the note can be a method of coded communication and is a nod to youthful secrecy.

Works by Chito will also be on view alongside works by resident artists at the Lagos’ booth in the Projects Section of Material Art Fair.

Chito is an American visual artist and designer from Seattle, Washington. He has developed a distinct visual language, attended by an idiosyncratic cast of characters and idioms, that has developed and expanded throughout a nomadic practice. While the artist’s best recognized medium is airbrush painting, the ground of the works has come to constitute a shifting field to accommodate the flexibility of the painting style. In a solo presentation in New York in 2019 titled kk pertain, a group of pups is united by familiarity, and their kinship spans a range of affective color. As Chito describes it, the figure of the Yung Pup “embodies the lil homie who’s still learning. Da yung homie who is wit da shiK.K but needs a lil bit of game to prosper. Learns fast and plays his position.”

Painterly ground has evolved, ossified, and expanded in Chito’s designs. Developing from unique airbrushed garments, single painted shirts have multiplied into harder architectures of garments fossilized in industrial resin.

This exhibition constitutes Chito’s first solo presentation in Mexico, and features works produced in collaboration with ironworkers in the State of Mexico, specializing in welding and in the production of the ubiquitous security gates found throughout the city, an architectural form of security that mirrors the function of enclosure in the folds of a note that one school student might pass to another.

Chito has exhibited before in group contexts in Mexico City. An exhibition in 2017 entitled Roached in Peace was hosted by Ladrón gallery, a young artist-run space with an exhibition trajectory that includes a large amount of the up-and-coming artists from the local community.

Chito’s notes exhibition will be the last of an international invitational program that sought to foster exchange in alternating local artists with international projects, in an extended understanding of the residency model. This program was created and has been run by Antonella Rava since February 2018. The program’s objective has been to directly support artists and art professionals, stimulating the next stages of their career by providing work space and assistance for the development of their projects. This program has aimed to respond to the needs of the community it belongs to, through the creation of solid infrastructure and expansive community.
— Lagos

Mexico City Art Week Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday: 11am-8pm
Sunday: 12- 4pm