Weston Teruya

I just got back back from San Francisco and I have to say what a wonderful day it was. There were so many people out today. It was a beautiful fall day. There also were a lot of tourists around. I've never seen SF so packed before. Anyways the main reason I went was to check out my friend Weston Teruya's show at the Patricia Sweetow gallery. You must go see his work in person if have not already because it's simply amazing.

Here is a link to his newly updated website: Weston

Link to the gallery: Patricia Sweetow

Weston Teruya drawings are the crevassed psychological space of nightmares. His beauty forms unbalanced columnar symbols, chaotically poised for collapse. The surface of Teruya's drawings are sourced from his own drawings, cut and collaged in a new composition. The reconfiguration of symbols interacts to create unexpected new meanings. His ideas were drawn from the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall nested in the midst of Los Amigos Golf Course, where Weston worked with juveniles in detention for various offenses. Teruya observed that the protected status of a juvenile population is in direct contrast to the invisibility of this same population to public oversight. Teruya's drawings describe the issues of power, invisibility, and protection.



"I am interested in collecting and collapsing the signals and objects of exclusion, separation and leisure. These images typically define and reinforce spaces of privilege through the creation of sites of control. The work is a speculative exercise of sorts. I am particularly interested in suggesting new fictive configurations which imagine new social possibilities or frustrate present political realities."



Weston Teruya received his MFA from California College of the Arts in 2006. He is in his second year of the Visual Criticism program at CCA to be completed in 2007. He has received the Murphy-Cadogan Fellowship Award from the San Francisco Foundation, and the Yesland Prize Exhibit Award from Magic Theatre, San Francisco. His work was recently reviewed in Art Forum, Critic's Picks, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Artweek, and San Francisco Weekly. Teruya has a solo exhibition scheduled at PSG Oct/Nov 2006.