The current “Wild Style” exhibit at Brownsville’s Galeria 409 displays some of the best raw artistic talent the Rio Grande Valley has to offer. Just check out the great work above by Karla Miranda.

“Wild Style” is an eclectic exhibit with pop art and tattoo designs sharing space with comic book illustrations, colorful surfboards, airbrushed truck body parts and more traditional art. Art professors share walls with graffiti artists, amateurs and even inmates. It’s a fun mix of work that I think everyone should catch.

I visited the gallery on Saturday and owner/curator Mark Clark was nice enough to take a break from his mural project to show me around. He’ll do the same for you. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. or by appointment. It’s located in downtown Brownsville at 409 E. 13th Street and admission is free. The exhibit will be up until March 31. What follows are a few snapshots and my thoughts on some of my favorite pieces in the exhibit. Still, there’s a lot more to see, so visit the gallery before March 31. Plus, Mark can tell you a lot more about the art than I can.

Rene Garza’s work (below) mixes graffiti and pop art styles. His work is striking and, visually, it’s probably my favorite in the entire exhibition.

The following piece, “La Ruta de Che” by Garza is based on a phony passport that Che Guevara onced used to travel from country to country.

This is Garza’s “Back in Time,” an active piece that I wish I had the extra income to buy and take home with me.

Next is Hector Reyna’s more traditional work. Reyna is an inmate, Clark said, and he bides his time in the pin by creating great stuff like this.

Below is Gabriel Trevino’s graffiti stencil logo for The Art of Brownsville, a blog started by Brownsville artist Mayra Cruz that everyone should check out. Like many Valley artists, Trevino sells his work for cheap on the weekends at the 77 Flea Market in Brownsville.

I found the following piece by Javier Barbosa really striking. It might seem like just another Last Supper rendering, but look closely. Barbosa airbrushed Jesus and his homeboys on the tailgate of a Ford F-150 pickup truck. This is “puro Valley,” but in a good way. Barbosa works with Special Education students at Brownsville’s Vela Middle School and he also sells his work at the flea market. He has a few other great airbrush art pieces in the exhibit.

Paul Guevara from Luke Fruia Motors contributed this flaming hood to the exhibit. I thought it fit in rather nicely.

If you know me, you know I’m partial to pop art, especially when it’s Andy Warholesque. So, it goes without saying that i dig Cecilia Lara’s work below.

Brownsville tattoo artist Carlos Truan contributed this pair of trippy paintings on canvas. You can also see a bunch of tattoo designs and some other eye-popping pieces by Truan at the gallery.

I was really impressed by the work of Karla Miranda. Here’s a closer look at one of her illustrations. The images inside the thought bubble are drawn on post-it notes. I hope we see more of Miranda. Her work, especially the self-portrait at the top of this post, reminds me of the comic book “Phonogram”

The following is a detail shot from … well I didn’t get the artist’s name, so I’ll just go along and call him just another punk kid from Weslaco. (Does Weslaco have a lot of punk kids?) This was hanging outside the gallery and is much larger than it appears here.

So, I only covered about half of the “Wild Style” exhibit here. There’s a lot more to see and Mark can tell you all about the artists that contributed to the show. Mark might even show you some pictures of some of the decked-out motorcycles he had on display during the exhibit’s opening night. Take the time to stop by the gallery and support your Valley artists, they’re a talented bunch.

Posted by Mike