Memory is a strange beast. The instant we leave a moment behind, it is forever altered as it imprints on our minds. Recollections take on completely new forms from the actual events, times and places that inspired them, and they continue to shift over time with personal biases and the universal desire to forget difficult times and amplify those that bring joy. There is a unique beauty in one moment splitting into two, as actual temporal happenings evolve into our visions of that time passed.

Palace of Memory presents a new body of work by José Luis Vargas (b. 1965, Puerto Rico) centered around the alteration and adornment of souvenir paintings purchased and sourced from the Caribbean, primarily Haiti. These works were originally created to represent fantastic memories of “paradise” for tourists passing through who wanted to return home with a physical memento, in this case dayglow tropical canvases purchased to embody their trips. In Vargas own words, “Haitian street-paintings felt like an open invitation to insert alternative narratives into images of an artificial memory. The more of these works I collected, the more it felt like they were asking me to intervene as they simulate a kind of paradise that is farfetched and does not exist.”

To make the souvenir-paintings his own, José Luis Vargas employs multiple techniques to add a surreal personal touch to each work. He paints cartoon word-bubbles emanating from simplified Black and Brown figures (the locals) displaying snippets of conversations aimed at us (the visitors): “¿Quién nos separa? ¡Nadie, Pendeja!” (Who separates us? No one, you asshole!), “Ya no funciona” (It doesn’t work any longer), “¿Qué tu haces aquí?” (What are you doing here?) and “Yo no soy un coco” (I am not a coconut). Vargas also collages cut-out elements onto the found canvases such as monsters, ufos, disembodied heads, anatomical illustrations, Victorian women, and people dressed in ritual costumes from different ethnic groups. Each addition is done with force, but also with a measure of restraint so as not to break the illusion of the original.

Souvenirs such as the low cost, assembly-line Haitian paintings Vargas utilizes for his own artistic purposes are a tricky substitute for the real-life drama of a country inhabited by people surrounded by political, ecological and cultural turmoil. Vargas pulls back the curtain to reveal this irony while also interjecting his own unique history to the mix by commenting on the colonial overtones of his home state, Puerto Rico. The resulting images embrace a punk aesthetic but are also tender displays of a clash of cultures attempting to unite. Despite the direct vandalization of another’s artwork, Vargas heightens the humanity, humor and truth of these works.

José Luis Vargas currently lives and works in Carolina, Puerto Rico. He received a BFA from Pratt Institute, New York in 1988, studied at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1991, and received a MFA in painting from the Royal College of Art in London in 1994. Vargas has exhibited at galleries including Lowell Ryan Projects, Los Angeles, CA; Carl Freedman Gallery, Margate, UK; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY; Bill Brady Gallery, Miami, FL; 198 Gallery, London, UK; Roberto Paradise, San Juan, Puerto Rico; The Hole, New York, NY; Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY; and at museums including Museo de Arte, Caguas, Puerto Rico; Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, New York, NY; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, San Juan, Puerto Rico.