October 21–November 18, 2023
Steve Turner is pleased to present Manifest Destiny, a solo exhibition by Zachary Ochoa which features recent paintings that conflate the artist’s lived experiences as an Afro-Latinx queer person with the escapades of cartoon characters such as Popeye, Donald Duck and Tweety Bird. According to the artist, “I use the imagery of American cartoons to address the disappearing American Dream and the rise of teen suicide and depression. The characters are stand-ins for me, both psychologically and physically as they also bear my scars and tattoos. They embody darkness and violence, but they are also funny and playful. They enable me to find inner peace and power amidst a constant onslaught of ghetto aggressions.”
Zachary Ochoa (born 1998, Aurora, Illinois) earned a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (2020). They have had solo exhibitions with Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2021 & 2022) and have had works included in group exhibitions at Spring Break, New York (2021) and Woaw, Hong Kong (2022).
