Nana Olivas "All Alone"
Soho20 Chelsea Gallery
This event has ended.
Culled from personal experience, Olivas’ work speaks of displacement, both geographically and culturally. Abstracted forms such as decorative ruffs and Spanish conquistador helmets, are a nod to the colonialism of Mexico by Spain, ca. 1500 which Olivas points to poetically recalling the beauty and the devastation of this iconography.
The ominous feeling of the work is impeded by the presence of the artist, found in handwritten text and various painted gestures. In Glow series quirky white forms seems to smoother the transparent surface. Oiled canvas gives sight to stretcher bars and hidden surfaces not often privy to the viewer. The emotional weight found in Olivas’ work is best described by the various materials used by the artist. Paint, oil, blood, varnish and lacquer are used to speak of the nuanced experience of shared histories. In the three-part series, Verlangen splatters of blood can be spied within the endless black lacquer, simultaneously reflecting the viewer. Olivas, who paints on unprimed canvas can be seen as a successor of Antoni Tapies, who was once described as “a painter who was to create mysteries in matter itself.”
Media
Schedule
from March 27, 2012 to April 20, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-03-29 from 18:00 to 20:00