Exhibitions
PETE HOFFECKER MEJÍA: MONDEGREEN
Tri-Star Arts / 4450 Candora Ave., Candoro Marble Building July 16, 2021 - September 25, 2021
Pete Hoffecker Mejía
Tri-Star Arts announces the next exhibition at their gallery in the historic Candoro Marble Building. A solo show, Mondegreen, featuring new work by artist Pete Hoffecker Mejía of Salem, Oregon (Kalapuya Lands) will open on Friday, July 16, and run through Saturday, September 25, 2021. Public receptions will be held on Friday, July 16 from 5:00- 8:00 pm (artist in attendance) and Friday, September 3 from 5:00- 8:00 pm. An in-person artist talk will be held on Friday, July 16 at 3:30 pm.
Pete Hoffecker Mejía states: “This work is engaged with the negotiation of multiform cultural identities. I am expressly concerned with exploring the intersection of contrasting cultural information, hierarchies of representation, and conflation in the expression of otherness.
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, of indigenous ancestry, adopted by a multiracial family and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee (Cherokee Lands), I have created a studio practice that serves as a space for mediation of the resulting geographic and cultural estrangement. Cut and reassembled serape blankets, mochila pattern, molas, and other fragments of a whole speak to cultural and geographic discontinuity. Interrogating the themes of European geometric abstraction and Indigenous art forms allows me to create a sculptural narrative of contemporary Latin-American and Indigenous cultural hybridity, with acknowledgment of the postcolonial landscape.
High art and low, the historical and the ahistorical, the found and the fabricated, caricature and the sincere, all collide and collude. In this way, I explore the blurred points of contact resulting from estrangement, while touching on the obstacles in mediating self through distorted representations of the other in mass culture.”
This exhibition will be open to the public, alongside iconic spaces within the Candoro Marble Building, regularly from Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00 am until 5:00 pm. Social distancing is encouraged.
Tri-Star Arts is based at the Candoro Marble Building with its main office, gallery space, and artist studios. Their gallery features exhibitions with a local, state-wide, and national focus on contemporary visual art.
Constructed in 1923, the Candoro Marble Building originally served as the offices and showroom for the Candoro Marble Company. It showcases a Charles Barber-designed Beaux-Arts architectural style, beautiful Tennessee pink marble, and an iconic tree-lined drive on its one-acre grounds. In early 2021, the Aslan Foundation completed a substantial restoration of the building. In partnership with the Aslan Foundation, Tri-Star Arts oversees programming at the site. It is located at 4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920.
About Pete Hoffecker Mejía:
Pete Hoffecker Mejía’s work is engaged in the exploration and mediation of intersectional cultural identity, hierarchies of representation, and the politics of abstraction. His structures investigate the blurred points of contact resulting from estrangement, while also looking at the continuing impacts of colonialism.
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee (Cherokee Lands), Hoffecker Mejía received his BFA from the University of Memphis and an MFA from Indiana University. His work has appeared in magazines such as Create! and New American Paintings. He has been an artist-in-residence at the Studios at MASS MoCA, Ox-Bow School of Art, the Vermont Studio Center, and others. He is currently Assistant Professor of Art & Design at Western Oregon University.
About Tri-Star Arts:
Tri-Star Arts serves Tennessee by spotlighting and growing the contemporary visual art scenes in each region and fostering a unified state-wide art scene. Their programs promote art dialogue between the different cities in the state, and between the state and the nation. Their initiatives include regular state-wide exhibition projects, the Current Art Fund, a speaker series, the LocateArts.org web resource, the forthcoming Tennessee Triennial, and their base of operations at the Candoro Marble Building with a gallery exhibition space and artist studios.
