Raúl Lara Naranjo

Textures and images emerge through a ghostly wash of paints and inks in Spanish artist Raúl Lara Naranjo's subtle, seductive compositions. Using transfers he layers photographs — generally of protest marches — and textiles onto canvases, which he distorts and transforms with acrylics, oils, inks and pastels, creating abstract and collage-like effects that focus viewers' attention on the mixed media works' surfaces. The sparseness and muted palettes of the resulting paintings often evoke similarly subtle pieces by Robert Ryman, and make for immersive and intense viewing experiences. 

The interplay of media and surfaces in these paintings gives them an illusory, Op art-like quality, with the images of textures and patterns becoming difficult to distinguish from the artist's painterly gestures. He heightens our awareness of the elegant folds, splashes, streaks, ridges and rivulets in his work, some of which are caused by thickly applied paints, while others originate in the photo transfers. The works blur distinctions between textures and their images, seducing viewers with their beguiling beauty.