Postcolonial images merge with children’s pop culture to produce eerily alluring abstract scenes on Mylar and paper. Clusters of lines are stockpiled and dominate space creating a dense hybrid landscape. David Rios Ferreira populates these landscapes with figures of reinterpreted comic book and cartoon characters like Astro Boy and Peter Pan to play out imagined histories. In the vein of the “disneyfied” fairytale, he too is appropriating existing narratives.
In his work the act of drawing serves a dual purpose. Rios Ferreira both composes an image and participates in the act of “drawing together.” The imagery of coloring books and animation, 18th century newspaper etchings, as well as paintings such as those of Puerto Rican Impressionist Francisco Oller come together in order to reimagine notions of identity formation that traverse the emotional, sexual, and psychological complexities inherent in the historical narrative.
David Rios Ferreira holds a BFA from The Cooper Union. His recent artist residencies include The Center for Book Arts, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts and Lower East Side Printshop. In 2017 he will be featured in the Artist In the Marketplace (AIM 37) Biennial at The Bronx Museum of the Arts. He has exhibited in galleries and museums in the US and abroad, including BAM, CoCA Seattle, Nemeth Art Center, Minnesota and Kunstraum Richard Sorge Gallery, Berlin.
