Mario Trejo - Accumulated relics of arduous performances of repeated gestures

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Mario Trejo, “Forever and Ever and Ever,” 2017

archival ink and enamel on panel

Opening Reception, Thursday, June 22 from 5 to 8 pm.

Mario Trejo’s works are accumulations of thousands of quickly drawn idiosyncratic marks. The amalgamations of hundreds of thousands of marks/circles/ lines in varying densities begin to resemble pocket Universes, each a relic of an arduous performance of repeated gestures.

Mario Trejo was raised in Saint Louis, Missouri and currently resides in Seattle, Washington. In 2005, he attended The Chicago Art Institute of Chicago, for his BFA. Mario received his Masters of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute and was chosen from numerous graduating Bay Area artists to be included in Art Benicia’s Cream from the Top Exhibition, moderated by Kenneth Baker. While attending the San Francisco Art Institute, Mario founded the Ways and Means Independent Student Exhibition in 2008. He formed a group of inspiring art majors, who collaborated with Mario to raise money, designed and produced catalogs and rented and renovated a space for a two month period. Also within that year, Trejo was awarded a Root Division Grant via Mildred Howard to build Birdhouses in the Cohen Alley, which were also shown at the luggage store annex.

In 2008, Trejo interned for the curator, Lance Fung, at the Site Santa Fe 2008 Biennial, Lucky Number Seven. In 2009, Trejo was the exhibitions director for the Museum of Pocket Art. In 2011, Mario was on an experimental painting panel, moderated by William Conger. In 2012, Mario had two Museum shows, Elmhurst Art Museum and a two part show at the Illinois State Museum. Later that year, Mario became a global artist with the representation of Herringer Kiss Gallery of Calgary Canada and Koki Arts of Tokyo Japan. In 2015, Mario produced his first solo publication “Mario Trejo Paintings 2008-2015”, later that year he was shown at the Koki Arts Booth in the immensely popular Seattle Art Fair.

In 2016, Mario returned to the Seattle Art Fair represented by Koki Arts, a Tokyo based gallery. Founded by Paul G. Allen, the Seattle Art Fair is the most prestigious Northwestern art fair featuring local, regional, and international art galleries presenting top-tier modern and contemporary art. Mario’s, “ENGINE” was featured as the primary art piece representing Koki Arts in the Seattle Art Fair gallery catalog. From July-September 2016, Mario showed “Machine”, a newly acquired painting by the City of Seattle—Office of Arts and Culture, which was featured in the group, show “Cultural Perspectives Part II”.