Dr. Lakra, Sin título/Untitled (Retrato de mujer con calaca), 2007, Ink on vintage magazine, 11-1/8 x 8-5/8", Luis Alvarez Vila.

Dr. Lakra, Sin título/Untitled (vestido amarillo), 2004, Ink on vintage magazine, 13-7/8 x 9-7/8", The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Dr. Lakra, Sin título/Untitled (Estrella Blanca), 2005, Ink on Poster, 18-7/8 x 13-3/8", Beth Rudin DeWoody.

Institute of Contemporary Art
100 Northern Avenue
617-478-3100
Boston
Dr. Lakra
April 14-September 6, 2010

The ICA presents the first U.S. solo exhibition of Dr. Lakra, a Mexico-based artist and world-renowned tattooist. In Dr. Lakra’s work, the idealized images of 1950s pin-up girls, wrestlers and Mexican businessmen are tattooed with drawings of demons, skulls, snakes and spiders. No surface escapes the artist’s pen — everything from vintage magazines and Japanese prints to plastic cups and Kewpie dolls are covered with his provocative and macabre drawings. The work combines a diverse range of patterns and symbols — such as Chicano, Maori, Thai and ancient Aztec imagery — with pop culture and erotica to create a tantalizing mix of life, death and desire. Dr. Lakra presents over 60 works, including a new drawing that will cover an entire wall. The exhibition is organized by independent curator Pedro Alonzo with assistance from ICA Curatorial Associate Bridget Hanson.

“Bold, playful, and always original, Dr. Lakra’s work crosses cultures, challenges social norms and explores individual and collective identity,” says ICA Director Jill Medvedow. “With nearly one-third of young people in the U.S. sporting a tattoo, Dr. Lakra offers unique perspective on our contemporary fascination with this art.”

“While Dr. Lakra is well-known for his work as a tattooist, he considers himself first and foremost a draftsman,” says Alonzo. “His influences embrace the rich history of illustration in Mexico, as well as comics, graphic novels, and pulp fiction. In his work, the iconic Day of the Dead images of Manuel Manilla and José Guadalupe Posada meet the overt sexuality of R. Crumb.”

Dr. Lakra has traveled from California to Thailand to the Philippines to work with artists still practicing traditional tattooing techniques. His irreverent works explore the tensions between social structures and innate desires, the group and the individual, sacred and secular. Juxtapositions of sex and death, old and new abound, as grotesque creatures encircle seductive women and society figures bear the symbols of fierce modern-day gangs. Even the artist’s pseudonym, inspired by his habit of carrying tattoo equipment in a black doctor’s bag, is a clash of opposites: lakra, a Spanish colloquialism meaning “delinquent,” follows a title that commands respect.

Apart from tattooing, his art involves embellishing images and other found objects — for instance, dolls, old medical illustrations, and pictures in 1950s Mexican magazines — with macabre or tattoo-style designs.

He has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including Stolen Bike at the Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York, Los Dos Amigos at MACO in Mexico, Pin Up at Tate Modern, and Pierced Hearts and True Love at The Drawing Center in New York.

In 2007, he co-produced the book Los Dos Amigos with artist Abraham Cruzvillegas. In 2008 he participated in the Goth: Reality of the Departed World exhibition at the Yokohama Museum of Art, curated by Eriko Kimura. His works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Hammer Museum, and the Walker Art Center.

Dr Lakra is represented by kurimanzutto, Mexico City and Kate MacGarry, London.

“I see my work, my tattoo work and other formats, as a mixture of different iconographies from different cultures and places,” says Dr. Lakra. “I’m always trying to deal with this basic primal urge. Primitive instincts like sex, violence, graffiti, are all innate [to] human beings and not tied to one culture.”

Born in Mexico in 1972, Jerónimo López Ramírez signs his work as Dr. Lakra, which loosely translates as “Dr. Delinquent.” He is the son of the Mexican-born painter, Francisco Toledo. Dr. Lakra studied with Gabriel Orozco in the late 1980s as part of a weekly workshop that also included Damian Ortega, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Gabriel Kuri. The artist’s work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Hammer Museum and the Walker Art Center, and has been featured in exhibitions at the Tate Modern, London (2005), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2007), among others. Dr. Lakra lives and works in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Dr. Lakra, Sin título/Untitled (Shattered), 2009, Ink on vintage lithography, 7 x 4 3/8", Courtesy of the artist and kurimanzutto gallery, Mexico City.