The Kurimanzuto Gallery and Mexico’s Ediciones RM will unveil tomorrow (Tues. 23) a new volume published by the two of them. It’s just about a catalog on Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez (1972) that showcases its flair as an illustrator with an array of 120 pieces that include images –old photographs and magazine shots- using the needle-and-ink technique. Dr. Lakra is this artist’s penname, the son of celebrated painter Francisco Toledo’s.
The publishing house itself has made clear the whopping effect of his work: “(…) quite a gripping visual work (…).” Dr. Lakra overlaps gang tattoos, bones, skulls, heads of Aztec warriors, cobwebs, snakes and demons over ancient ads, pinup girls, dolls and molded skulls in mystic, ancestral or funerary symbolism. Thus, as Pedro Alonzo puts it, “he creates tension by altering ancient documents teeming with historic connotations, with intentional flagrant and vulgar markings.”
Some highlights in the catalog are, for example, a triptych of Japanese engravings intervened by Dr. Lakra, or a few pages of showbiz magazines in which the images of Olga Breeskin or Lin May were also intervened with tattoos all over their bodies. The tattoo –a peculiar way of illustrating the body- is one of this contemporary artist’s obsessions and one of his forms of expressions.
“The uncivilized, unrefined and primitive human being is always repressed in some way, sometimes even in a criminal way, and I believe –Dr. Lakra says- that by means of those aspects that basic culture can be defined.”
For the month of December, a new iPad version of this catalog will hit the market and it’ll be available as an ibookstorn.
Source: La Jornada. Ana Monica Rodriguez. Funde el Dr. Lakra en su obra simbolismo místico y popular. 22/11/10
