WERC (Jari Rene Alvarez)
Amexican Spirito, 2010
Serigraph, Ed. 72
24”x17”

WERC in Amexican Spirito reconceptualizes the notion and representation of an “American Spirit” by reworking the product imaging and name of a well-known tobacco brand into a graphic that celebrates the “spirito” of the Mexican-American “paletero” or ice cream man. WERC brings together a complex network of ideas involving national identity, consumer branding, and Mexican-American cultural placemaking. By placing a common figure in Mexican-American community life as the embodiment of a hybrid identity, the artist dismantles the notion of an essential national selfhood, and valorizes the everyday.

Jari Werc Alvarez was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and grew up in Texas. He works within the intersection of art and activism, “reinterpreting and exploring the balance and duality of and identity and society.” His work also reflects a cultural duality as he lives and and creates art at the Mexico-US border.