A “Meet the Artist” presentation with Hugo Crosthwaite will take place at Stone Brewing 5 to 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17. Crosthwaite will discuss and answer questions about his murals at Liberty Station. As part of the Arts District’s “Installations at the Station” program, since Aug. 3, Crosthwaite has been painting at Liberty Station creating improvisational murals titled “Column A and Column B: A Continual Mural Narrative Performance.” The murals relate to the area, its Navy history, and circumstances he encountered each day while on-site.
“Ideas can be judged in juxtaposition to one another by the different people whose opinions will determine them. Ideologies, intrinsically neutral, are given power — by those who are interpreting them. ‘Column A and Column B: A Continual Mural Narrative Performance’ is just an idea — until someone gives it personal weight and meaning,” Crosthwaite explained. “At its core, the project is simply about a man, a ladder and a paint brush,” he added. Crosthwaite lives and works between Tijuana, Los Angeles, and New York. Inspired by the heritage and turmoil of border regions, Crosthwaite works in a style that brings together portraiture of ordinary people, comic book characters, street signage, urban facades, mythological references, and contemporary subjects into dense and layered compositions. This mixture creates feelings of chaos and spontaneity, reflecting the frenetic urban settings of border towns like Tijuana and San Diego. Crosthwaite was born in Tijuana in 1971 and grew up in the tourist-heavy beach town of Rosarito, Mexico. He graduated from San Diego State University in 1997 with a BA in applied arts and sciences. Shown widely throughout the world, his work is in the collections of major museums across Southern California and Florida, and in Tijuana. “All of the artists featured in Installations at the Station included their own unique voice in examining and thinking about our region’s history and culture, while incorporating innovative ways to engage the public,” explained Vicki Reed, chair of the Art in Public Places Committee, NTC Foundation.