Carlos Torres

Venezuelan painter Carlos Torres' large works are generally dominated by one or two colors that fade into each other, conveying a kind of organic balance. His titles refer to broad human emotions and states of being that can scarcely be defined, but might be evoked through painting. Inspected more closely, however, many of his artworks reveal themselves to be fragmented by ridges, gouges and cracks in their acrylic surfaces.

Initially, Torres' paintings pretend to capture the essence of emotions through abstract composition. However, he points out the impossibility of defining, categorizing and containing human emotions within an artwork by undermining the unity of his canvases with creases and fractures. This expresses the elusiveness of human subjectivity: the irrational elements of our behavior that dwell just out of sight in the cracks and fissures of consciousness. Torres reveals his intelligence and maturity by teasing our desire to define human psychology with his calm compositions, then revealing our disjointed psyches through the valleys and folds that crisscross his canvases.