Michael Rosenthal is proud to present Veronica De Jesus’ first San Francisco solo exhibit: Do the Waive. Based in Oakland and working nationally, De Jesus creates images that dive to the root of that which she personally questions, the intersection of culture and commercialism. The upcoming Michael Rosenthal show exhibits De Jesus’ newest body of work, which focuses on the imagery of iconic minority baseball, basketball and football players with a humorous and bold commentary on the economics that perpetuate their popularity.

De Jesus describes her new drawings as being created through a process of observing how sports is pushing our economy, and how sports reflects the dreams, ideals and ambitions of the populace. “Growing up my dad, brother and I watched sports as regular every day fans. When I began my sports series, I started realizing that all the popular minority sports figures knew that one way they could ‘make it big’ in the world was through professional sports." If one excelled at sports, business would turn them into icons and the whole world would have someone to look up to, to be inspired by. In many ways this series concluded with how money is pushing these ideals.

Do the Waive will feature approximately 20 new works on paper, including 3 large works, 2 to 3 hanging works that as De Jesus notes, have a sculptural, 3-dimensional quality, and approximately 15 small 8.5 x 11” pieces.

Veronica De Jesus was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in many American cities and currently lives and works in Oakland, CA. She received her MFA from UC Berkeley and BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Past exhibitions include: the Berkeley Art
Museum; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; the Cue Art Foundation, New York and New Langton Arts, San Francisco. Honors include the Cue Art Foundation residency; Headlands Center For the Arts Residency Award through UC Berkeley; twice awarded the Eisner Award, UC Berkeley; and the Gamblin Painting Award, San Francisco Art Institute.