Selected Solo Exhibitions
2008
- Klaudia Marr Gallery Santa Fe, NM
2007
- George Billis Gallery Los Angeles, CA
2006
- Andrea Schwartz Gallery San Francisco, CA
2005
- Gallery Saint Germain West Hollywood, California
2004
- Glass Garage Gallery West Hollywood, California
- Lurie Fine Art Gallery Boca Raton, Florida
2003
- Glass Garage Gallery West Hollywood, California
2002
- Glass Garage Gallery West Hollywood, California
2001
- Glass Garage Gallery West Hollywood, California
2000
- Mendenhall Gallery Pasadena, California
1999
- Mendenhall Gallery Pasadena, California
1993
- Louis Newman Galleries Beverly Hills, California
- Art of Hands Gallery Costa Mesa, California
- MRL Gallery Long Beach, California
1992
- MRL Gallery Long Beach, California
1991
- MRL Gallery Long Beach, California
1990
- MRL Gallery Long Beach, California
1989
- MRL Gallery Long Beach, California
Selected Group Exhibitions
2008
- LA Art Fair Los Angeles, California
- George Billis Gallery Los Angeles, California
- “Pop in the Midwest”
- Evan Lurie Gallery Carmel, Indiana
2008
- “The Juxtapos Factor”
- The Laguna Museum Laguna Beach, California
- LA Art Fair Los Angeles, California
2007
- Evan Lurie Gallery Carmel, Indiana
- Lurie Galleries Miami, Florida
- Klaudia Marr Gallery Santa Fe, New Mexico
- Naomi Silva Gallery Atlanta, Georgia
2006
- Andrea Schwartz Gallery San Francisco, California
- 7-0-7 Contemporary Gallery Santa Fe, New Mexico
- SOHO Fine Art Galleries Studio City, California
- Art Chicago Chicago, Illinois
- Lurie Galleries Miami, Florida
2005
- Gallery Saint Germain West Hollywood, California
- LA Art Fair Los Angeles, California
- Kent Gallery Key West, Florida
- Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery Pasadena, California
2004
- Kent Gallery Key West, Florida
- Broadway Gallery Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2003
- Glass Garage Gallery West Hollywood, California
2002
- Soho Gallery Studio City, California
- Greenwood Chebithes Gallery Laguna Beach, California
2001
- Glass Garage Gallery West Hollywood, California
2000
- Mendenhall Gallery Pasadena, California
1999
- Mendenhall Gallery Pasadena, California
1998
- Modernism Show Santa Monica, California
- Miami Art Fair Miami, Florida
- Mendenhall Gallery Pasadena, California
1997
- Solomon Gallery Los Angeles, California
- MB Modern New York, New York
1996
- Horwitch Newman Gallery Scottsdale, Arizona
- Solomon Gallery Los Angeles, California
1995
- Koplin Gallery Santa Monica, California
1994
- Horwitch Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
- Louis Newman Galleries Beverly Hills, California
1993
- Artspace Gallery Woodland Hills, California
- Joslyn Art Center Gallery Torrance, California
1992
- South Bay Contemporary Museum Torrance, California
- LA Art Core Los Angeles, California
- 1991
- Joslyn Art Center Gallery Torrance, California
1990
- Harris Fine Art Center Provo, Utah
Selected Public Collections
- Arkansas Art Center Little Rock, Arkansas
- Reading Public Museum & Art Gallery Reading, Pennsylvania
Selected Bibliography
- JUXTAPOZ Magazine Cover and write-up. June 2006
- Selected Bibliography, ----Gallery guide editorial September 2004
- Daniella Walsh. "Review", Orange County Register, December 2002.
- Editor's Profile "Jorge Santos" latimes.com Oct/99.
- Rick Gilbert. "Enigmatism". Juxtapoz, Sept/Octo, 1999.
- Jeremy Rosenberg. "Jorge Santos' Music To Our Eyes" Art Connoisseur, Sept/Octo, 1999.
- Verdugo, John. "Profile: Jorge Santos". NoMoPoMo, Winter/Spring, 1997.
- Baron, Todd. "Jorge Santos, Robert Van Vraken, Paton Miller". Art Scene, July/August, 1995.
- Sylvia Townsend. "Brush with anger". Life/Arts, Daily Breeze, June 5, 1991.
- Mike Ramos. "Best Bets", Los Angeles Times, November 1990.
Awards
1990
- Honorable mention, Drawing Competition, Provo, Utah
1989
- Outstanding Contribution in the Visual Arts from the City of Torrance
1988
- Excellence Award from the Art Horizons Competition, New York
Jorge Santos was born in 1959, and spent his childhood in Luanda, Angola on the coast of Africa. In 1975, Angola exploded in the violent political turmoil of decolonization, forcing Santos' family to flee the country. At the formative age of 16 Santos found himself thrust into the equally turbulent and unknown culture of Lisbon, Portugal, as that country slid into its own revolution. The national struggle paralleled Santos' own personal one and fueled his passion for drawing. At this early stage, pencil drawing, the most simple and direct form of expression, perfectly suited his complicated and dramatic images and expressed his unique vision.
Though of Portuguese descent, the following years brought the artist no sense of belonging, so in 1982 Santos moved to the United States. It was here that his work evolved beyond drawing. His illusory, dreamlike images that hint at bizarre secrets leapt from the drawing board to the full realization of paint and canvas.
In 1990, the self-taught Santos began adding color to his images and in this second period black and white figures stand out in stark contrast to their colored environments. Though the techniques combine acrylic and pencil on board, or oil and acrylic on canvas, a balance of opposites continued to be the focus of his work. With every painting, a stage of ambiguous illusion is created.
Suddenly, at the end of the millennium, Santos' paintings burst into full color showing a mature command of his artistry. They are still surreal allegorical works but now tempered with the irony and humor of an eccentric yet adventurous mind.
Figures are frequently fragmented, boxed within rooms, cardboard containers, or trompe l'oeil frames. An unusual icon will repeat itself with humorous frequency: a fish, a plane, a train... His characters seem alienated, odd, socially awkward and disconnected; disconnected also from their backgrounds by texture and technique. The overall impact of the work is disturbing and yet endearingly funny.
While one could spend hours psychoanalyzing Santos' imagery, perhaps the best path to understanding his work is of that of a master set designer who creates an emotional landscape and populates it with characters to be animated in the imaginations of his viewers. Santos sets the stage and creates the cast, but each individual who sees the work writes his or her own internal play, making Santos' work a unique, almost interactive, experience.