Multimedia artist Gennaro Garcia

Genera Garcia’s ethnic heritage is the inspiration for this multimedia artist’s vibrant work. 

By Nicole Royse

Local chef, restaurateur, and advocate Gennaro Garcia is also an artist who creates bodies of work that explore various media that include painting, woodwork, prints, ceramics, wearables, and murals. Growing up in an artistic household, he has always had a passion for the arts. His style is a combination of Italian techniques applied to oils, acrylics, wood, and plaster that blend with a vibrant color palette from his childhood growing up in Mexico. Meanwhile, his engaging Valley murals with Calle16 Mural Project, a nonprofit group he co-founded a few years ago, represent the diverse communities that live in Phoenix.

Garcia creates colorful paintings that are full of life and peppered with religious references and his own heritage. This can be seen in works like La Sublime, an intimate portrait of Frida Kahlo, and in woodworks that he delicately and intricately carves and paints with bold colors—The Tree of Life Guadeloupian is one such piece. His latest work involves ceramics, with a series of hand-painted plates and cutting boards titled Hecho a Mano (handmade), with striking imagery that references the Mexican day of honor, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Garcia’s subjects, he says, are greatly influenced and inspired by his Catholic upbringing and both his Mexican and American identities.

Garcia’s work has been installed in more than 60 exhibitions in the last four years and is currently exhibiting in 12 different galleries around the United States and Mexico. Garcia is also the resident artist at Xico Inc., a Latin and Native American arts organization.

The rest of the year is packed for Garcia. He has multiple exhibitions and mural projects scheduled, and his artwork and wares are sold at three different airports. He is also combining his passion for art and food with a new series he will be doing throughout 2015 at various venues in Arizona, California, and Mexico, titled My Art, My Food. For a complete listing of upcoming events and exhibitions, visit artegennaro.com.

Beat the heat at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts

Summer is the perfect time to explore SMOCA. Through Aug. 30, enjoy the fresh and provocative artworks presented in MetaModern that refer literally and conceptually to modernist design objects of the mid-century. Meanwhile, from June 6 through Sept. 13, take in the ambitious kinetic sculptures, paintings, installations, and sound art in the Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins: The Collaborationists exhibition. SMOCA is the only museum in the United States to present this groundbreaking installation that utilizes unusual materials including mechanized window blinds, motors, and custom software along with traditional paper, canvas, and paint to create unexpected combinations.

SMoCA

7374 E. Second St., Scottsdale

smoca.org