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      Oil Paintings by Paco Pomet Brighten Vintage Scenes with Satirical Elements in Color

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      Art
      #humor
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #satire
      #social commentary
      #surrealFebruary 10, 2022Grace Ebert“A Prequel” (2021), oil on canvas, 100 x 150 centimeters. All images © Paco PometSucceeding his series of paintings titled Beginnings, Paco Pomet’s Endings applies a similarly satirical veil to his provocative and outlandish scenarios: a cleaved camper reveals red steak marbled with fat, businessmen shake hands through an elongated finger trap, and a woman walks a hand-standing friend on a leash. The Spanish artist (previously) is known for his keen sense of wit and humor and distinct visual commentary on contemporary issues like capitalism, the degradation of the environment, and moments in American history that have global impacts. He shares in an interview:I am very interested in current affairs, but in order to fully understand today’s world, it is necessary to look back and examine historical events. The past is full of hints that can unveil the present, so in some ways, we could paraphrase that statement which says that there’s nothing new under the sun. I have always thought that subjects and themes remain the same over centuries, and that human pursuits, aspirations, and chimeras are cyclical. Nowadays, we might have different tools and ways of approaching those issues, but the important questions remain the same, even though the way they show up changes throughout the years.Often working with anachronistic scenes and symbols, Pomet depicts children of a past era sparring with glowing lightsabers in “A Prequel” and a vintage car blurring into a trail of greens and yellows in “Trip.” Each oil painting is rendered largely in neutral tones with bright, colorful elements supplying the artist’s signature dose of irony.You can explore an archive of Pomet’s surreal works and follow his latest compositions on Instagram.“Prime” (2021), oil on canvas, 38 x 46 centimeters“Rearguard” (2021), oil on canvas, 38 x 46 centimeters“The Restrainers” (2021), oil on canvas, 60 x 73 centimeters“The Last Executive Committee Meeting” (2021), oil on canvas, 130 x 150 centimeters“Amblers” (2021), oil on canvas, 73 x 60 centimeters“Apart” (2021), oil on canvas, 130 x 170 centimeters“Trip” (2021), oil on canvas, 100 x 150 centimeters“Dissident” (2021), oil on canvas, 130 x 170 centimeters
      #humor
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #satire
      #social commentary
      #surrealDo stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now! Share this story  More

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      Minimal Strokes Applied with a Broom Form Jose Lerma’s Tactile Portraits

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      Art
      #abstract
      #impasto
      #painting
      #portraitsFebruary 7, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Jose Lerma, shared with permissionTo create his thick, abstract portraits, Chicago-based artist Jose Lerma trades his brush for hefty, commercial brooms that follow the lines of preliminary sketches. “The process of these paintings is laborious. I make my own paint and fabricate my supports. The material is heavy and unwieldy,” he tells Colossal. “It is done in one shot because it dries very fast, so there is a minimal margin for mistakes.”Lerma’s impasto works shown here have evolved from his original series of Paint Portraits, which revealed the general outline of a figure without any distinctive details. Wide swaths trace the length of the subject’s hair or neck, leaving ridges around the perimeter and a solid gob of pigment at the end of each stroke. His forward-facing portraits tend to split the figure in half by using complementary shades of the same color to mirror each side of a face.With a background in social sciences, history, and law, much of Lerma’s earlier pieces revolved around translating research into absurd, childlike installations and more immersive projects. “In recent works, maybe due to returning to my home in Puerto Rico and a much more relaxed non-academic setting, I have eliminated my reliance on history and research and now concentrate on just making portraits,” he shares. “It’s an approachable, tactile, and disarming aesthetic, but the absurdity remains perhaps in the excessive materiality.”Now, Lerma “works in reverse” and begins with a specific image that he reduces to the most minimal markings. “It’s a large work painted in the manner of a small work, and I think that has the psychological effect of making the viewer feel small, more like a child,” he says.Living and working between Puerto Rico and Chicago, where he teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Lerma currently has paintings on view in a number of shows: he’s at Yusto/Giner in Málaga through March 24 and part of the traveling LatinXAmerican exhibition. In April, he’ll be showing with Nino Mier Gallery at Expo Chicago and in May at Galeria Diablo Rosso in Panama. Until then, see more of his works on Instagram.
      #abstract
      #impasto
      #painting
      #portraitsDo stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now! Share this story  More

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      Sublime Plein Air Paintings by Jeremy Sams Are Photographed Against Lush North Carolina Landscapes

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      Art
      #acrylic
      #landscapes
      #painting
      #plein airJanuary 31, 2022Grace EbertAll images © Jeremy Sams, shared with permissionWhen painting in plein air, artist Jeremy Sams scours the landscapes around his home in Archdale, North Carolina, for a spot that rouses all of his senses. “It begins in your initial journey, whether it’s a hike through a place of natural solitude with all of the smells and cool breezes or just a stroll down a street with the melodies of urban life,” he shares.He then paints sublime interpretations of the nearby landscape, relying on a realistic color palette in acrylic to render slightly blurred edges and the location’s generally serene qualities: overlaid by a dreamy haze, brooks reflect the surrounding trees, a small brood of chickens pecks at spring grass, and snow melts into a rocky stream.In a note to Colossal, Sams says he’s most attracted to places layered with contrast, sometimes in the form of light and shadow or disparities in color and others when natural features are positioned alongside human interventions like pathways and barns. “Whatever it is that draws my attention, there is something truthful about the landscape that begs to be painted,” he shares. “This is one of the reasons that I do very little editing to the scene on my canvas, but I try to capture the essence of that thing which initially drew me in.”Sams tends to photograph his finished paintings against their original source, which you can see more of on Instagram.
      #acrylic
      #landscapes
      #painting
      #plein airDo stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now! Share this story  More

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      Balloons, Plants, and Bubble Wrap Become Powerful Subversive Symbols in Alicia Brown’s Portraits

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      Art
      #balloons
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plants
      #portraitsJanuary 31, 2022Grace Ebert“Love notes from my father in a foreign land when the apple trees blossom” (2021), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches. All photos by Daniel Perales Studio, © Alicia Brown, shared with permissionIn her new body of work What About the Men?, Jamaica-born, Sarasota-based artist Alicia Brown extracts and reenvisions elements of traditional portraiture. She recasts objects of cultural and social status, like the elaborate gowns and thick ruffled collars worn by wealthy aristocrats throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, by instead rendering her subjects in casual clothing like shorts and rubber flipflops with colorful latex balloons, plants, and plastic bubble wrap coiled around their necks.Contemporary and subversive, Brown’s oil paintings are rooted in history and a reinvented use of symbols interpreted as power, control, celebration, adaptation, and survival. She explains:As an artist from the Caribbean, Jamaica, which was colonized by Europe, presently there is still that system of classism that has its origin during slavery and colonialism in Jamaica that the natives have to navigate in order to fit into society. I have referenced the collar as an object that is European and replaced it with objects such as spoons, cotton swaps, shells, balloons, bubble wrap, and recently elements of nature. These collars adorned the neck of the models who are regular people and who are constantly going through a performance of creating an identity to gain acceptance.Derived from a photograph of a friend, family member, or neighbor, each intimate portrait is set against a lush backdrop of foliage or in domestic scenes with encroaching plant and animal life. “Through my work, I hope to convey to the viewer to look beyond their eyes and to see themselves as the person represented in the painting, to share their world, and to come to the awareness that we share so much in common, we are all connected as beings,” the artist shares.If you’re in Rochester, you can see What About the Men? through March 6 at UUU Art Collective. Otherwise, visit Brown’s site and Instagram.“The Duke of Portmore-dad’s legacy” (2022), 48 x 36 inches“The queen’s coronation” (2020), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches“Male bird of paradise” (2021), oil on canvas, 64 x 42 inches“You look just like your father” (2021), oil on canvas“There is a race of men who do not fit in” (2021), oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches“Portrait of lady Cameal from Alva” (2020), oil on canvas, 28 x 36 inches
      #balloons
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plants
      #portraitsDo stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now! Share this story  More