Shadow Parade

Statement

For our summer exhibition season, Themes+Projects is pleased to welcome the return of Charlo for his second solo exhibition, Shadow Parade. The exhibition contains a combination of site specific murals, works on panel, found objects, and digital collage.

Shadow Parade traces a quiet procession through light and darkness. It is a journey of healing, identity, and the transformative power of the line.

For Charlo, the line is rooted in mark-making and gesture. It becomes a thread of becoming — a way to move, connect, and integrate. Woven through moments of innocence, desire, and discovery, the line makes space for shadows to be seen not as burdens, but as essential companions. This is not a march toward perfection. It is a dance with contradiction, a celebration in which the past and present are neither hidden nor erased, but held in motion together.

As the artist descends into the depths of his own inner ocean, he meets not just his demons, but the shadows behind them—alive, complex, and intertwined. In this space of integration, gold meets silver. Dreams meet flesh. Fear gives way to transformation. Shadow Parade becomes both confession and celebration: a luminous rite where the self is unburdened, reframed, and set in motion once more.

Additionally, 10% of the exhibition's proceeds will support the Inspired Students Mural Initiative.

Where art meets community spirit: The Inspired Students Mural Initiative is a community-based art project in partnership with K-12 schools across California, focused on project-based learning. This initiative provides students with the opportunity to collaborate with and be mentored by renowned mural artist Charlo.

Jenny Nagashima

Commentary

Shadow Parade, Charlo’s most recent body of work, dives into shadow psychology, revealing, exploring, and celebrating recurring patterns and images of the male figure. 

In this series, Charlo explores his personal and artistic connection to the male figure, allowing linework, images, and words to deeply consider motifs previously suppressed by societal expectations. His work on public murals and past exhibitions came from a different perspective, what the artist viewed as publicly acceptable themes, often at the expense of more personal content. Shadow Parade embraces a more vulnerable, interior world. It holds the tension between playfulness and seriousness, revisiting the visual language of his mural practice with a new, introspective lens. Rather than filtering sexually charged images, words, and drawings, they are now openly celebrated and integrated into recurring visual motifs. The influence of sexuality, once concealed, is now prominently celebrated.

Charlo’s Love is a Boy series demonstrates an evolution of his signature line work, now interacting with assemblages of cupid, muscular, and nude men. Drawn line work depicting repeated crosses, spirals, and churches touches on the suppression of growing up in the catholic church. Hidden in the relationship between openness and disguise lies the expression of love, sex, and desire. A body of work directly influenced by Keith Haring’s bold, intuitive lines and recurring imagery, MC Escher’s complex patterns, Remedios Varo’s interest in Jungian psychology, and the suppressed unconscious shadow to reveal itself.

Charlo's process follows the intuitive direction of his lines. The line serves as the prompt, triggering the imagination, a movement of life, lifelines, and a timeline. It intuitively navigates solid black backgrounds, digital assemblages, sculptural objects, and past work. The use of line draws a connection from the artist’s subconscious to the found and assembled imagery, revealing the nature of the surfaces they cover.

-Jenny Nagashima - Curatorial Assistant, PARDON

Statement

For our summer 2023 exhibition, Themes+Projects gallery happily presents, Looking for Clouds by Charlo!

Charlo’s exploration for this new work literally came from changing his perspective of what is in front of him, to drawing inspiration from the clouds above! By waiting and watching his subjects pass him by, the calmness of these moments revealed the hidden compositions he observed in the slight changes in shapes, gestures, and movements of his clouds. This activity sparked his imagination and through his playful abstract linear line work, Charlo expressed his discoveries through symbols, letters, phrases, and hidden themes. He invites the viewer lose themselves in these complexly dense compositions and to be thrilled in finding joy and wonder in their meanings.

In this exhibition, Charlo experiments with the use of modular and circular paintings on panel, a sculptural abstract cloud, drawings on paper, and a wall mural. This is Charlo’s first solo exhibition with Themes+Projects gallery and second collaboration with the gallery. In fall of 2022, Themes+Projects gallery had the pleasure to work with Charlo in creating a mural for Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo.

About

Carlos García Walterbach, widely known as Charlo, is a Denver-based multimedia artist and designer whose practice explores the emotional, symbolic, and communal dimensions of the line. Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Charlo earned his Bachelor of Graphic Design from the Faculty of Fine Arts at UANL in 2009 before relocating to the United States in 2013. Now an American citizen, he reflects on his journey with a deep sense of gratitude, weaving his life experiences into every facet of his work.

Charlo’s practice is rooted in the expressive potential of the line, not just as a visual gesture, but as a thread that carries memory, emotion, identity, and connection. His densely composed works integrate symbols, words, and shapes to form intricate tapestries where personal narratives and imagination intertwine. Through these lines, he invites viewers to search, interpret, and discover meaning, often embedding hidden messages or fragments of text that reflect moments of transformation, joy, and healing.

Community engagement is at the heart of Charlo’s practice. He first gained recognition in Denver with Make Alleys Great Again, a grassroots mural initiative that transformed more than 70 garage doors into vibrant public artworks. Appropriating a divisive political slogan, the project reclaimed public space as a canvas for unity and joy. This ethos has continued to guide Charlo’s public art efforts, including his 2021 live mural The Joy of Being Together, created in partnership with Nextdoor and the New York Stock Exchange.

In recent years, Charlo has expanded his reach through the Inspired Students Mural Initiative, a youth mentorship and mural program that brings large-scale collaborative artworks to K–12 schools. This past year alone, the initiative brought 15 murals to 12 schools, reaching over 6,000 students. And the impact goes well beyond the walls—families, teachers, siblings, and entire neighborhoods have felt the joy and energy this work brings.

Charlo’s studio and mural work have been exhibited nationally, with solo shows in Denver, San Francisco, and Marfa, Texas. Across all mediums, whether through found objects, sculptural installation, or public murals, his work remains an exploration of how lines can hold, release, and transform stories into spaces of wonder, reflection, and belonging.

Press

The Gazette - The Amazing Voyage of the Denver Artist known as Charlo

5280 Magazine - Denver Muralist Charlo Is On a Mission To Spread Joy 

CPR - Mexico-Born Denver Muralist Redefines ‘MAGA’ One Garage Door At A Time 

ABC News - Denver artist making alleyways great again one garage door at a time

The Denverite - Mexico-born Denver muralist redefines ‘MAGA’ one garage door at a time 

NBC News - Artist’s Murals Connect Community

Telemundo - Un muralista mexicano se reinventa durante la pandemia y ahora su trabajo tiene lista de espera 

Nextdoor | NYSE 

“The Joy Of Being Together” 2021  Mural live painting event in partnership with Nextdoor in the New York Stock Exchange,  Nextdoor is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker $KIND 

Nextdoor celebrates $KIND listing on the New York Stock Exchange with neighbors who are building stronger, more connected communities 

FOX31 - Denver artist making alleyways great again one garage door at a time 

Denver Art Museum - Storytelling Studio Artist Charlo Garcia Walterbach 

Real Simple Article - 11 Inspiring Stories of Neighbors Banding Together 

Westword- The Artist Next Door: Charlo Opens First Solo Exhibition

TEDxMileHigh Reconnect - JOYCYCLE by Charlo Walterbach

Número 8 | Denver, Colorado  “Hola Denver” 2020 

His 8th and the largest mural was painted in the Fall of 2020 at 930 Inca St in Denver on a massive black cinder block canvas. With the city skyline cresting the roof of the building in the distance, this would be Charlo’s "salute to the city.” Charlo Mural Número 8