News — Sergio Farfan

Sergio Farfán’s cubistic-pop paintings hang on walls all over the world. Now his name hangs on a plaque adorning his alma mater’s wall of fame. 

Back in September, Sergio was one of four new additions to the Leyden High School Alumni Wall of Fame, where he joins the ranks of notables including two-time Super Bowl-winning NFL head coach Mike Shanahan and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Jonathan Cain, the longtime keyboardist with "Don't Stop Believin'" hitmakers Journey. 

“It means a lot,” says Sergio, one of 13 artists exhibiting with Vertical Gallery at next month’s Aqua Art Miami. “I'm not making this up, but I remember walking into the school, seeing the wall of fame and thinking ‘I don't know how I’m gonna do it, but I'm gonna make it to that wall someday.’ And I did it.”

West Leyden High School, located roughly 15 miles west of downtown Chicago in suburban Northlake, Ill., played a transformative role in Sergio’s life and career. When long-simmering mental health issues dramatically intensified during his freshman year, West Leyden officials steered Sergio towards art therapy, which utilizes creative expression as a means to address negative thoughts, emotions and behaviors. The impact was seismic.

“I always had anxiety, but I never really had depression before my freshman year,” Sergio recalls. “Art was how I learned to cope. It gave me confidence, and eventually, it took over. I dropped everything else to dedicate my life to art.”

Sergio’s talents flourished under the tutelage of West Leyden art teachers Steve Lappe and Carolne Felix, and in his junior year he claimed first-place honors in the 2013 Congressional Art Competition, traveling to Washington, D.C. to view his work on display inside the Capitol Building. 

“Mr. Lappe and Ms. Felix are the ones that really pushed me to become an artist,” Sergio says. “I remember Mr. Lappe once purposely splashed paint on something I was painting, and said ‘Work with it.’ He wanted me to be creative, you know? As long as I did my assignments, they never forced me to follow the rules. They always let me do my own thing.” 

Eleven years after graduating from West Leyden, Sergio continues to do his own thing. In addition to solo exhibitions in Chicago, Miami, Tampa and New York City, he’s collaborated with brands including Delta Airlines, Four Loko and the NBA’s Chicago Bulls. The latter partnership caught the attention of West Leyden English teacher and basketball junkie Victor Giordano, who along with Lappe and Felix led the charge to immortalize Sergio via the school’s wall of fame, which recognizes outstanding graduates and offers role models for the next generation. 

West Leyden and its Franklin Park, Ill.-based counterpart East Leyden High School feted Sergio and his fellow Alumni Wall of Fame inductees with a ceremony and reception commemorating their achievements. All four honorees also spoke to students at both schools.   

“The most important thing I told them — and I tell this to a lot of people — is to be patient. Stick in your own lane, and don’t focus on others. Because when you compare yourself to other people, it drives you down,” Sergio says. “When I was in high school, people were always comparing me to other artists that were quote-unquote better than me, and I never paid attention to that. I only ever cared about what I truly want to do, and I feel like that's what got me to where I am today.” 

Vertical Gallery will feature 12 new paintings from Sergio Farfán (@farfanart) at Aqua Art Miami, which runs December 3-7. Email sales@verticalgallery.com for the collector preview. 

Vertical Gallery is very excited to return to the Miami Art Fairs! We will be returning to the AQUA Art Fair this year with an all-star group show featuring: ADi (AU), 2CHOEY (TH), Jake and Josh (US), Steve Seeley (US), Flog (FR), Laura Catherwood (US), Louis (Masai) Michel (UK), Collin van der Sluijs (NL), Sergio Farfán (US), and Blake Jones (US).

VIEW THE SHOW HERE

ADi is an Australian contemporary artist renowned for creating totemic wooden assemblages that explore society's fixation on popular culture, brand recognition, and nostalgia. His distinctive works, often referred to as "false idols" or pop cultural artefacts, reimagine traditional religious iconography, positioning modern cultural symbols as new-age deities in place of the ancient worship of nature and gods. His practice uniquely intersects sculpture and designer toy art, extending into modern interior and object design, offering a fresh take on the cultural artefacts of our time.

2CHOEY is a Bangkok based self-taught artist. With a background is in Urban Architecture, 2CHOEY was an art director in an ad agency. He soon started selling paintings and realized he enjoyed painting more than working in advertising. 2CHOEY’s signature characters, ‘Fingies’, reinterprets pop culture icons within the framework of hands, fists and fingers in his playful and very unique style. Vertical presented his first USA solo show in 2023, and also presented a solo show at the Urban Art Fair in Paris.

Flog discovered a passion for drawing at an early age. He studied graphic design at the Pivaut Nantes school and made it his profession, finding his balance in producing work from illustration to the publishing world. Inspired by graffiti and pop culture, Flog's mixed media technique- aerosol spray, acrylic, and oil on road signs or canvas- reveals precision in the details. Flog’s show with Vertical at SCOPE Miami sold out in 2023. He has also had sold-out shows in Paris, Rome, and Taiwan.

Jake and Josh are a dynamic duo of twin artists who have captivated audiences with their unique blend of creativity and sibling synergy. Their work often explores the intersection of playful storytelling and creative line work, resulting in thought-provoking pieces. Their intricate attention to detail and meticulous craftsmanship invite viewers to immerse themselves in the layers of meaning within each work.

Laura Catherwood is a Chicago-based painter focused on delicately emotive illustration of plants, animals, and quiet creatures. The sense of an intimate, mysterious narrative in her work invites contemplation and extends empathy to the viewer. With soft textures and sensitive gestures, she diagrams our ambiguous feelings toward the natural order of things.

Louis (Masai) Michel is a UK-based painter, sculptor and muralist. He uses his art in the form of murals, paintings and installations as a way to highlight climate change and species equality. The subject or species, is created in the style of a cuddly plush toy, thus highlighting that if one doesn't preserve the existence of the species depicted, only toys and souvenirs will remain. Within the composition of the species are intricate details exploring cultural fabrics, popular culture and elements of conservation. 

Collin van der Sluijs is a renowned painter and illustrator from Maastricht, The Netherlands, where he lives and works. He is widely recognized for his extraordinary dream-like depictions of everyday stories that question our personal pleasures and struggles, as well as society at large. Collin’s exceptional work has been published in magazines and books, and shown in galleries across the world—in The Netherlands, Germany, France, England, Belgium, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, and USA.

Sergio Farfán blends the experiences from his hometown in Peru with the life he’s lived in Chicago to create works that focus on the struggles, dreams, and emotions that people go through in their life. Farfán began to draw as a form of therapy as he struggled through his anxiety. Whatever was troubling him or whenever he just wanted to forget what was going on in the world around him, he found refuge in his art and would draw his favorite cartoon characters he would see on TV.  

Steve Seeley is an artist whose work draws inspiration from a wide range of pop culture sources including superheroes, celebrities, cartoons and comic books. Technically gifted, his artistic practice spans multiple media with a fresh sense of experimentation. His work has been exhibited throughout the US and is held in private collections worldwide.

Blake Jones is a Chicago based artist. Blake’s use of graphic line work and bright color palettes illustrates narratives of complex worlds inhabited by his own iconic characters, objects, and landscapes. Blake’s work has been exhibited in multiple mediums and forms such as print, paintings, gallery exhibitions, sculptures, and murals.

Aqua Art Miami at the Aqua Hotel
1530 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33139
Vertical Gallery Room 107

VIP Preview:
Wednesday, December 4 | 3pm-10pm

Public Hours:
Thursday, December 5 | 12pm - 9pm
Friday, December 6 | 11am - 9pm
Saturday, December 7 | 11am - 9pm
Sunday, December 8 | 11am - 6pm

A collector's preview will be sent out Saturday November 30th. Email us to be added to the preview list. Note: Some works will be available in-person only. If you need a VIP pass for the fair, please email us.

Vertical Gallery is excited to present two special shows celebrating our 10-Year Anniversary! 

Opening first on March 11 at Vertical Project Space:
March 11 - April 16: Vertical Gallery 10-Year Anniversary Show Part 1 at Vertical Project Space featuring: Chris Uphues, Rae Denise (Racheal Scotland), AJ Ainscough, Laura Catherwood, Van Dam One, Goosenek, Melissa Villarreal, Angel Onofre, Matt Zuska and Jordan Ferguson.

Vertical Project Space is located at 2006 W Chicago Ave #1R (entrance in alley off Damen). Open weekends 12-5.

VIEW PART ONE HERE

Opening on April 1 at Vertical Gallery:
April 1 - 29: Vertical Gallery 10-Year Anniversary Show Part 2 at Vertical Gallery featuring: AlexFace, Martin Whatson, Flog, 2CHOEY, Hama Woods, Sergio Farfan, Collin Van Der Sluijs, Mr. Kreme, Mau Mau, and Pipsqueak Was Here!!! 

Vertical Gallery is located at 1016 N Western Ave. Open Tues-Sat 12-6.

Thank you to everyone that has visited and collected work from us over the past 10 years. And special thanks to all of the artists that have shown with us over the past 134 shows! 

Email us at info@verticalgallery.com if you have any questions.

Stella Gallerie is very proud to present ‘Anxiety Est. 03,’ a collection of new paintings by Chicago-based multimedia artist Sergio Farfán.

‘Anxiety Est. 03’ (which occupies both Stella Gallerie in Miami and Public Studio in Tampa, and is presented in partnership with Chicago’s Vertical Gallery) features close to three dozen new canvases grappling with the seminal moment in Farfán’s life to date: his family’s abrupt relocation from their native Peru to the United States — a tectonic shift that set in motion his childhood anxiety, but also directly inspired his career as an artist. Farfán will be in attendance when ‘Anxiety Est. 03’ opens at Stella Gallerie on Thursday, Sept. 22, and will travel to Tampa for the Public Studio opening on Saturday, Sept. 24.

‘Anxiety Est. 03’ explores childhood trauma through the lens of Farfán’s signature cartoon-cubism approach, poignantly yet playfully bringing to life the emotions and experiences that reshaped his adolescence upon arriving in America in 2003. Farfán’s parents did not inform him about the family’s relocation plans: in fact, the animation-obsessed seven-year-old boarded their plane believing he was en route to a Disney World vacation. While the aircraft briefly touched down in Miami, the Farfáns continued on to Chicago, where Sergio struggled to adjust both to his new surroundings and to the absence of his extended Peruvian family — a struggle that manifested as crippling anxiety.

“I remember being in Peru and not having any anxiety. I was a normal, happy kid,” Farfán says. “But flying from Peru to Florida and then from Florida to Chicago, my heart started racing and I was nauseous. I was shaking and sweating. It was not until my freshman year in high school that I was diagnosed with anxiety, and that led me to art therapy. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to deal with my anxiety and using art as a form of meditation.”

Farfán credits art therapy — a technique that utilizes creative expression as a means to address a patient’s negative thoughts, emotions and behaviors — for giving him the tools necessary to bring a project like ‘Anxiety Est. 03’ to fruition.

“Art therapy didn’t just teach me how to draw, but also to draw whatever I felt, and to put meaning into it,” he explains. “‘Anxiety Est. 03’ processes what I felt coming from Peru to the U.S. — what anxiety did to me, and how I dealt with it. Each painting tells stories about coming to America: what immigrants experience to come here, and what life is like when we get here.” 

‘Anxiety Est. 03’ represents the culmination of a long and winding creative process. Farfán originally conceived the series in 2017, one of four ongoing collections of paintings he launched that year; in preparation for this exhibit, he completed and reimagined works in progress since five years earlier, concurrently continuing the ‘Anxiety Est. 03’ series with brand-new pieces that delve deeper into his core thematic concerns and demonstrate his evolving mastery of color. For example, both “Color Esperanza” (on display in Tampa) and the ‘Anxiety Est. 03’ title painting (exhibiting in Miami) confront anxiety’s chokehold on Farfán’s psyche, but while the former is serene and contemplative, the latter delivers Picasso-inspired anarchy, complete with appearances by animation icons Tom and Jerry.

“Back in 2017, I was in a very bad mindset. I was sharing very personal stuff in my paintings, and It now feels very immature. So I went back and painted over everything I don’t want people to know, because it’s all behind me now,” Farfán says. “It felt like I was collaborating with my younger self. In fact, it almost feels like we’re two different people, because we all change every day. But I still really like the paintings from back then, because they show a lot of character.”

Vertical Gallery first displayed Farfán’s work in a 2016 holiday-themed pop-up exhibit, and included several of his canvases in its 2019 and 2020 anniversary shows. In late 2020, Vertical presented ‘Looking for Dreams in a Kan of Soup,’ a solo pop-up that explored the artist’s debt to his boyhood hero Andy Warhol while simultaneously embracing a more abstract approach that escaped Warhol’s shadow altogether — an approach that informed the dazzlingly colorful, mind-bending work presented in Farfán’s first full-fledged solo exhibit, 2021’s ‘Five Years.’

Contact victor@stellagallerie.com for sales inquiries.

Vertical Gallery is very proud to present ‘Five Years,’ Chicago-based multimedia artist Sergio Farfán’s first solo exhibit.

‘Five Years,’ which runs from Nov. 6-24 at Vertical’s 1016 N. Western Ave. location, caps off the first half-decade of Farfán’s professional career while introducing daring possibilities for the next phase of the artist’s evolution. The show features new canvases and sculptures as well as a unique video installation intercutting animations of Farfán’s original characters with clips from the classic cartoons, films and music videos that inspired his formative efforts.

Farfán is no stranger to Vertical audiences. The gallery first displayed his work in a 2016 holiday-themed pop-up exhibit, and included several canvases in its 2019 and 2020 anniversary shows. In late 2020, Vertical also presented ‘Looking for Dreams in a Kan of Soup,’ a solo pop-up that explored Farfán’s debt to his boyhood hero Andy Warhol while simultaneously embracing a more playful, abstract approach that escaped Warhol’s shadow altogether — an approach that informs the dazzlingly colorful, mind-bending work presented in ‘Five Years.’  

“My five-year plan was always to do my art, be successful with it and have a solo show at Vertical Gallery. And it happened,” Farfán says. “Everything I did within those five years — experimenting with different styles and morphing them together — is in this show.”  

Farfán was born in Peru. His family relocated to Chicago when he was seven years old; as a teen, he struggled with depression, but found refuge in art therapy — a technique that utilizes creative expression as a means to address a patient’s negative thoughts, emotions and behaviors. “Art therapy is where I started to learn how to put meaning into what I was drawing,” Farfán says. “It’s fine to be not fine. That’s what my work’s about: the fact that everyone goes through stuff. It’s up to you how you want to deal with it, and if you want to take the good route or the bad route.”

In conjunction with ‘Five Years,’ Farfán and Vertical Gallery are publishing Comeuppance, a full-color monograph capturing images and recollections from the first five years of Farfán’s career. Comeuppance goes on sale Saturday, Nov. 6. 

Sergio Farfán
"5 Years"
November 6 - 24, 2021
Opening Day: Saturday, November 6th, noon-6pm
Vertical Gallery, 1016 N. Western Ave., Chicago