Francisco Agraz

Mexican artist Francisco Agraz’s mysterious, powerful paintings offer intriguing enigmas. His landscapes, portraits and mythic scenes always create a fascinating air of intrigue that draws viewers into his universe. These scenes are crafted from thick brushstrokes and a striking, surreal palette of colors that suggest a world transformed by some spectacular occurrence—the sky glows light green or deep red, faces are obscured by random objects or float in abstract vacuums. The influences of Renaissance artists and classical figurative painting are clearly present in the delicate and lifelike bodies and faces Agraz portrays.

More revealingly, though, he cites the influences of Mexican muralists José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, whose mixtures of familiar figures and bizarre ethereal forces return with an eerie glow in Agraz’s work. His uncanny scenes come at us like excerpts from ancient narratives—whether epic or intimate—whose terms are unknown and whose characters are performing bizarre rituals. These visions, sometimes unsettling, elsewhere inviting, are endlessly rich and seductive.