Cultures collide in the work of Julio Cesar Morales, an artist offering hisinterpretation of a post-apocalyptic city based on his experiences growingup on the border of California and Mexico. Morales’s exhibit “There’s Gonna Be Sorrow” was also influenced by the first album he ever purchased, David Bowie’s “Diamond Dogs.” Bowie’s album, which was influenced by George Orwell’s dystopian novel, “1984.” Spark catches up with Morales to chat about his installation at Galería de la Raza.

San Francisco-based Morales is a conceptual and installation artist who expresses his thoughts on labor issues and personal identity through sculpture, photography, video and other medias. In “There’s Gonna Be Sorrow” Morales employs idiosyncratic symbols to express his bi-cultural identity, fusing elements of traditional Mexican culture with contemporary, technology-infused aspects.

Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Julio Cesar Morales studied new genres at the San Francisco Art institute. An artist, educator and curator, Morales founded San Francisco gallery Queen’s Nails Annex and has exhibited throughout the world. He has received awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, The Arts Council, The Fleishhacker Foundation, and The Creative Work Fund.

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