NYAB Event - Antonio Murado Exhibition

Antonio Murado Exhibition

Von Lintel Gallery

This event has ended.

Von Lintel Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by Antonio Murado. The solo show, Murado’s first with Von Lintel Gallery and his sixth in New York.

Antonio Murado’s abstract compositions are bold. Rendered in shifts of variegated hues, rich fleshy tans are punctured by broad greens, grays and browns, highlighted with deep crimson reds. Large swathes of multi-layered color organically ooze and spread across the surface of the paintings. Yet once we’ve taken the composition in, studied the artist’s clever use of shape and color, it is Murado’s expert handling of material, coupled with the complex richness of his surface that causes us to linger.

At first glance, Murado’s smooth glaze appears unyielding on the paintings’ surfaces. One must fight their way through to get at the textured forms of color beneath—whole areas where, through combined tones and values and uneven application of layering, the texture of linen beneath the oil is left detected. However, a closer look reveals breaks in the picture plane. Thick dabs of paint build up the already heavily layered painting, lending the surface a three-dimensional quality. Other areas in turn are scraped, gouged and incised, the paint removed down to its base layer, exposing the linen beneath like a raw wound. Murado’s paintings are the result of both an additive and subtractive process, the artist simultaneously building up layers as he takes them away. The textured paintings take on a feeling of antiquity, a timeworn quality. And it is this, this notion of time, its ebb and flow, that we take hold of as we slowly make our way through the two-dimensional veneer of Murado’s paintings.

Antonio Murado’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally for nearly two decades. His work is held by virtually every museum in Spain and is included in major public and private collections throughout Europe and the United States. A native of Lugo, Spain, the artist currently lives and works in New York.