Latchkey Gallery is proud to announce our participation in MECA Art Fair taking place, November 21 – 24, 2019 in sunny Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. On view will be a two-person presentation, Beyond the Mark, featuring new works by artists, Patrick Alston and John Rivas. 

At first glance, the formal language of each artist’s paintings has little in common; Alston’s complex marks of movement in swirling gestures push and pull color in rhythmic abstraction. In contrast, Rivas expressive marks add to his visual collage that culminates into representational scenes. Each of the artists exudes dynamic expression, using the gesture as a response to the world in which they find themselves.

Working through the ugliness and uncertainty of our contemporary lives, Alston and Rivas command the canvas and provoke even the passive of eyes to decipher the actions, expressions and emotions found in their gestures. Through these energetic streaks, physical traces of the artist’s hand force the viewer to look deeper at the clues embedded into each artwork as they give insight into understating and connecting their stories. 

Beyond the Mark, is an exploration of two artists whose approach to express their human experience beyond the scope of spoken language are strongly communicated through each brushstroke.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Patrick Alston energetically creates works that, along with the interplay of titles, trigger thought-provoking and reflective topics including but not limited to socio-politics, identity, language, and the psychology of color. Alston’s re-contextualized subjects, rich palettes and complex compositions are dramatized exhilarating energies, expressed through mature gestural mark making (some of which are reminiscent of traditional graffiti culture of New York) that help to project an unwritten aesthetic which makes up the urban landscape. His finely tuned brush and knowledge of the rich art histories before him create complex conversations in the spaces they occupy. Alston's images create harmonious tension and challenge viewers to look carefully at the world around them, discovering beauty in unconventional places. 

Patrick Alston was born and raised in the Bronx, New York in 1991. He grew up in the South Bronx and attended Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, studying Art and Psychology. Since then, he has returned to his native New York, where he lives and works.


John Rivas is a figurative painter whose narrative is guided by stories of his ancestors. As a first generation American, Rivas’ artwork is enriched with tales of family members several of whom he’s met remotely or through photographs.

Rivas’ paintings occupy space like sculpture juxtaposing found objects many of which are sourced from his childhood. His brush strokes, thick at times with impasto are expressive marks that add to the visual collage. The complexity of his work is made up of the true color spectrum of Latinx faces. Loaded with personal symbolism and themes that celebrate the Latinx concept of family and community, his work examines the socioeconomic, racial and cultural boundaries of immigrant lives.

The artist attributes the frenetic, raw energy of his work to the long history of hard-working family members. The raw. “roughness and edges (of my work) comes from my family of farmers, family of construction workers- I know what it is to be under the sun, working, sweating I know how it feels, I am a dirty kid but I can make beauty out of anything.” 

Rivas is currently attending Columbia University for his MFA.