Popular culture, queer iconography, politics, sex, and images of beauty all inspire Enrique Castrejon’s mesmerizing artworks. Through mathematical equations, the artist meticulously transforms graphic imagery into geometric abstractions by measuring distances between points. In creating rigid shapes – fragments – Castrejon challenges our perceptions of what is real, forcing us to think critically about the information that bombards our everyday lives.
Castrejon’s drawings, sculptures, and installations appropriate images of the male body, in order to explore desire, queer aesthetics, violence, and stigma. He is particularly interested in counteracting the underrepresentation of queer men of color in mainstream media. Through his methodology of data mapping, the artist indicates how objective use of measuring can draw our attentions closer to the subject matter while simultaneously encouraging a deeper examination — in both the macro and micro — of the information.
Enrique Castrejon (b. 1972) was born in Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico. He received his BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena; and earned his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. He has been featured in group and solo shows; and art fairs throughout Southern California and abroad, including the Armory Center for the Arts, Art Platform: Los Angeles, Barnsdall Art Center, Claremont Art Museum, LA Art Core, LACE, MOCA, Pulse: Miami, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Outpost of Contemporary Art, Torrance Art Museum, and the Wignall Museum. Castrejon’s works are held in private and public collections, including the AltaMed Art Collection, Los Angeles; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California. And, he was a recipient of the COLA Award in 2019. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles.
