GATS - "Drifting Forest"

Harman Projects is pleased to present “Drifting Forest”, a new solo exhibition by local graffiti legend GATS. Following his sold out two-person show last year alongside San Francisco-based painter Jessica Hess, GATS returns this May for his solo debut at the gallery.

Based in the Bay Area, the iconography of GATS can also be encountered around the world as far as Palestine, Rome and the Philippines. Predominately known for the intricately designed mask found prevalent throughout his work, the artist’s symbology cultivates from his own personal reflections of society and ideas of duality, both as an anonymous graffiti artist and everyday city-inhabitant. The cryptic names and symbols that adorn his enigmatic character morph over time in reaction to the events that influence and shape the local community.

“Drifting Forest” is a continuation of these urban totems, as well as an exploration of the artist’s reconnection to the natural world. With a practice primarily rooted in concrete and man-made structures, GATS’ new body of work examine’s the dichotomy between nature and the urban space through the eyes of a graffiti writer. The show is comprised of paintings and wood-burnings applied to various reclaimed panels constructed out of drift wood and other found materials GATS found in the San Francisco Bay.

In the artist’s own words, “‘Drifting Forest’ is my longing to have a relationship with nature, only to watch the forest drift farther and farther away. I attempt to grow food in containers on top of concrete I don't own and the only native trees I see float in from the ocean disregarded as trash. These skeletons of the forest are sacred as I morn in the graveyard that is urban sprawl.”