Steve Turner Contemporary presents INVADERS! , a multi-media installation of paintings and sculpture by San Francisco-based artist Julio César Morales. For his first exhibition at the gallery, Morales has created three bodies of work that relate to illegal immigration, drug smuggling and underground economic strategies employed in urban settings on both sides of the U.S. - Mexico border.
Undocumented Interventions , an ongoing series of watercolors, explores human trafficking by depicting failed smuggling attempts. The images originate from the artist's memory of growing up on the Tijuana/San Diego border and actual photographs from the Immigration and Naturalizations Services website. The series reveals the ingenuity of the would-be immigrants as they hide themselves inside car upholstery, wheels, fuel tanks, piñatas and washers and dryers.
Narco Arquitectos is the term that describes Mexican architects who are commissioned by drug cartels to create tunnels along the border connecting Mexico and the U.S. In recent years, hundreds of such tunnels have been found, one of which stretched the length of eight football fields. Working from photographs found on the INS website, Morales collaborated with an architect to recreate precise architectural plans of tunnels and their aboveground exit locations.
Sonido Pirata consists of drawings and a sculptural installation that relate to the many innovative ways that music is pirated and distributed in Mexico by street vendors who sell to those who cannot afford the original versions.
Morales' work has been included in international survey exhibitions including the Lyon Biennale (2009); San Juan Triennial, Puerto Rico (2004 & 2008); Istanbul Biennale (2007) and Singapore Biennale (2006). He has had solo exhibitions since 2001, the most recent at LAXART, Los Angeles (2008) and New Langton Arts, San Francisco (2008). His works have also been included in numerous group exhibitions among them, Phantom Sightings , Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (2008); California Biennial , Orange County Museum of Art (2008); 60 Seconds Well Spent , Frankfurter Kunstverein (2006); November , Harris Lieberman, New York (2006) and Strange New World/Estraño Nuevo Mundo , San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (2006).