Opening reception March 30, 6 to 8 PM
From March 29th through April 18th at the Soho Gallery.
While the sheer variety of emerging styles recently prompted
one New York Times critic to call for "A New Map of Latin
America's Avant-Garde" that fanciful tendencies still hold
sway is clear in "The Latin American Art Exhibition: Masters
of the Imagination" a major survey at Agora Gallery, 415
West Broadway, in Soho, from March 29 through April 18. (Opening
reception March 30, 6 to 8 PM).
Born in Chile, Ignacio Gana exemplifies the neo-surrealist school
with his enigmatic paintings of mysterious romantic assignations
in metaphysical landscapes where one is as likely to encounter
beds and full-length mirrors as trees.
Magic realist Amelia Errazuriz also suggests the human presence,
albeit sans figures, in mixed media paintings of furniture, shadowy
staircases, and patterned tiles and pavements, imparting to these
inanimate things an emotionally potent atmosphere of silence,
expectancy, and mystery.
Even some of the more abstract artists, such as Jaime Villa,
introduce imaginative elements --in this case the transmutation
of the vegetation and mountains of the town in Ecuador where he
was born-- in paintings that combine some of the best qualities
of impressionism and expressionism.
Born in Panama to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Jane
Yechieli explores her multicultural heritage in colorful, richly
layered paintings that intertwine elements of the Jewish diaspora
and the jungle flora and fauna of her birthplace in rhythmic oils
where elements of nature assume a powerful personal resonance.
Cuban artist Noel Morera Cruz also employs nature metaphorically
in his lyrical mixed media works on canvas, rendering trees and
other elements of landscape hauntingly atmospheric through his
expressive paint handling subtle, monochromatic palette.
Inspired by her Mayan ancestry, Luz Maria Lopez merges ancient
imagery with contemporary immediacy in her icon-like mixed media
paintings, in which the use of metallic pigments in opulent depictions
of angels and other mythological figures enhances their spiritual
radiance .
A striking synthesis of intuition and intellect informs the mixed
media compositions of Mexican and U.S. trained Blanca Ruth Casanova
whose luminously layered compositions combine overall abstraction
with a subtle anatomical allusiveness.
Just as evocative in another manner, the bronze sculptures of
Jaime Vial, with their unusual and subtle patinas, seem to allude
to a variety of biomorphically derived forms that command space
with an often serpentine grace, yet resist specific definition.
By contrast, the still life paintings of the Venezuelan-born
artist Carmela Rakusa apply a meticulous magic realist technique
to floral subjects, employing coloristic heightening to lend them
her own unique blend of formal beauty and emotional urgency.
Cuban painter Juan Carlos Fuentes Ferrín piles up fanciful imagery
"people, birds, and chapeaux that would do the Mad Hatter
proud!" with an imaginative inventiveness that prompts one
to consider him a neo-surreal visual offspring of Lewis Carroll.
Then there is Ignacio Murua, born in Chile, now living in New
York City, whose flashy synthesis of color, gesture, and figure
is further enlivened by fragments of language that lend his pictures
poetic resonance.
Also including paintings by Otimcke, who is reviewed at length
elsewhere in this issue, this exhibition is a must-see for
anyone interested in what is fresh and original in contemporary
Latin American art.
Click
here to see the exhibition catalog
Opening reception March 30, 6 to 8 PM
From march 29th through April 18th at the Soho Gallery.
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