Carlos Rolon

Art Brokerage: Carlos Rolon aka Dzine American Artist: b. 1970. Carlos Rolón also known professionally under the pseudonym Dzine, is an American contemporary visual artist of Puerto Rican descent. Rolón attended Columbia College Chicago in 1989, with a concentration in painting and drawing His early career was heavily influenced by early New York City street, hip hop, disco and punk culture of the 1980s.He abandoned creating work as a street artist for abstract paintings in his early twenties. His travels to Europe in the early 1990s eventually led the artist to Paris's underground music and fashion worlds at artist space Hôpital éphémère (fr). A project for the now defunct French record label Yellow Productions brought the artist to Japan, where in 2003 he was introduced to Masami Shiraishi. The owner and director of Scai the Bathhouse, a contemporary art gallery known for introducing Japan's avant-garde artists to the world as well as for helping artists from abroad to establish a presence in Japan, he offered Rolón a solo exhibition, which sold out before the opening. The artist’s work is largely concerned with “kustom kulture,” a retro-tinged blue collar aesthetic, and its relationship to faux opulence and upper-class aspiration. This focus on over-the-top glamour addresses Dzine’s personal grappling with his dual mainland-American and Puerto Rican identity. His series of crystal-embellished mirrors mimics the security gates of Puerto Rican houses, contradictorily alluring and keeping people away, while a series of ornate sculptural works reference the belts and trophies of boxing culture; such cultural objects allude to Dzine’s time spent watching boxing matches with his father as well as an out-of-reach upper-class lifestyle. Listings wanted.