South Los Angeles native Jaime Zacarias aka GERMS is seemingly infected with an innate ability to channel the spirits of our surrealist predecessors, slapping our eyeballs with his grotesque yet amusing iconography and ameoba like characters while simultaneously referencing post-Chicano culture and imagery. He is known for cleverly stylized Luchador masks given life by their protruding tentacles, surrounded by floating amoebas that playfully flirt with their viewers' imaginations.
Says GERMS, "I find myself mesmerized by the seemingly infinite details and borderline infectious behaviors of each character I create, while striving to transform and challenge the traditional interpretations of the icons we all know so well." The viewer is drawn into a complex layering of cultural references; comfortable and familiar, often times playful and childlike imagery, which may, however, mask the dark and sinister - but which is imbued with an innocent sense of "anything is possible" in the World of GERMS.
GERMS most recent body of work is titled "Fasho," a term which affirms an unspoken agreement between the artist and the viewers of his work to look at the familiar as filtered through the mind of GERMS and see something never before seen."Fasho," also meaning "for sure," is a play on words - giving the artist total freedom to use the space as a playground.
