Luis Romero: Borderline
September 10 – November 13, 2015
Reception with artist, Thursday, September 10, 2015, 6 – 10 pm
September 10 – November 13, 2015
Reception with artist, Thursday, September 10, 2015, 6 – 10 pm
Luis Romero (Caracas, 1967), a multifaceted artist and acute observer of his immediate surroundings, began exhibiting in the 1990’s and since then has developed a significant career, based on trans-disciplinary proposals and the exploration of the different forms and languages of visual representation that
coexist in the exercise of his artistic practice.
As a result of relational and dialogic thinking, his work undertakes a constant review of many of the principles of perception, as well as the conceptualization of contextual realities. In his early pieces the artistic discourse is built upon a strict and constant compilation and recycling of images and objects, texts, and founded typographies, which—through the use of mixed media and diverse formats, like painting, drawing, assembly, and collage—-create a universe of iconographic relations that have their origins in both domestic and urban surroundings, in much the same way as a biographic logic.
The fragmented narrative that is created between word, image, and space transcends personal experience and propels itself – with the new millennium – towards an eventual abstraction of forms. A renewed interest in the tradition of non-representational art drives him into a systematic investigation of a geometry engaged with the politics of representation, with the capacity to mean diverse realities, and the ability to express meaning. The construction of abstract ideas in the recent proposal by Romero, is born of the imagination and conscious comprehension, though not infallible, of the world.
In terms of contemporaneity, artists sharing a common sensitivity towards rethinking the modern legacy, resume and subvert the original sense of abstraction and – with a gesture that is not without irony and inquisition – redefine its poetics in accordance with various, unprecedented, potential scenarios. The very concept of non-representation is critically reevaluated as a negotiation incorporating [among other elements] aspects of historical and individual identity, the social and public space, and communicative language, in an effort to match daily experience with the intertextuality of one’s own introspective signs.
The investigation of Romero—far from focusing of the fracturing of modern postulates, the nostalgia for the avant-garde, and the self-referential notion of art distanced from reality—moves towards a proposal full of meaning, that is born of a contingent reality, his own. The Cartesian paradigm, based on a rational and explicit argument, has given way to a practice that is not intended to confront the binary forms of representation (figurative or abstract); on the contrary, it builds a distinctive notion, circumscribed in a creative maneuver, that expands the scope of visual perception and the limits of subjectivity. Heir to strong formal traditions, he controls rigorous geometry and the reluctant logic of minimalism, along with the conceptualization of ideas, in Works that manifest, through effective strategies of production and aesthetic awareness, an evasive interpretation of their contents. Herein lays the arguments that give meaning to his approach.
Bordeline, the first solo exhibition of Luis Romero at the Alejandra von Hartz Gallery, brings together his most recent body work that centers on the representation of two different topics -one structural and other emotional- from which the curatorial proposal is built. In colloquial terms, the word that gives the name to the exhibition could very well reveal resonances of the ideas of crisis, conflict, or imbalance. At the same time, the words “Border” and “Line” pass through semantic memory in an exercise to contextualize the formal relationships contingent on the ideas of “perimeter” and “frontier”, polarization and dichotomy; instability and vacuum. The installation consists of a vast repertoire of works developed in individualized series, consolidating a hybrid visual of broad scale, wherein the representation of an affective geometry is expressed either by using traditional materials or graphic techniques and technologies from industry.
With Borderline, Romero re-vindicates the language of abstraction to express the complex contradictions of individual experience. His is an aesthetic investigation into the nature of the abstract inscribed in infinite visual registers and experimental possibilities. Here the use of color, composition, spatial relationships, geometric volumes and figures, the processes of the series, and the repetition of forms comprise the tools used in his artistic practice that is dedicated to the recovery of a sensitive perception of his inner world, circumscribed by individual consciousness and the notion of otherness. Therefore, we stress that Romero applies an imagined, arbitrary, capricious, fickle, and unstable geometry to the conceptualization of intimate subjectivity and its underlining emotions. These are visual forms that reveal the spiritual side of existence, in purposeful ambiguity to mislead the viewer in an abstract transcription of a possible narrative. Ruth Auerbach, Caracas, August 2015.
Luis Romero (b 1967, Caracas, Venezuela) is a Visual Artist, Curator and Editor. He has exhibited his work in his native Venezuela and internationally, including solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Latin America and Europe. To name only a few: Projectruimen Centrum, Rijksakademie Amsterdam; “Siete”, Sala Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela; “Blac & Hi”, Galería Fernando Zubillaga, Caracas; “Pulgar”, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MUSAC), Castilla y León, Spain; “Obertura”, Oficina#1, Caracas; “Cosmos”, Nube Gallery, Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and “Hipernova”, Diablo Rosso, Panamá. Group Exhibitions: 2002 IV Bienal Internacional de Dibujo, Drill Hall Gallery Camberra, Australia 2004 Bienal Internacional del Caribe. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana y PR04. Proyectos M&M. Rincón Puerto Rico, 2005 “Uno a la vez”. Colección Mercantil, MACZUL. Maracaibo, Venezuela, “Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art”. Americas Society. New York, USA. and “Colección Cisneros”. Museo Jesús Soto, Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela. 2006 “Don’t Trust”. UCLA. Los Angeles, California, USA 2007 “Jump Cuts: Venezuelan Contemporary Art”, Colección Mercantil. CIFO. Miami, USA. , “Cart(a)jena. Intervenciones Urbanas”. Cartagena, Colombia y “Documenta 12 Magazines”. Kassel, Alemania 2008 CIFO Grants & Commissions Programs Award. Miami, USA 2009 Trienal Poligráfica de San Juan Puerto Rico. Arsenal, San Juan, Puerto Rico 2011 en la 8a Bienal de Mercosur: Ensaios de Geopoética”. Porto Alegre.
Luis has received awards from CIFO Grants & Commissions Programs Award, Miami; Unesco-Aschberg Bursary, Rijsakaemie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Exxon-Mobile, Galería de Arte Nacional, Caracas, Venezuela and others. He has also participated in the following residencies: Nes Art Residency, Skagastrond, Iceland; Orientation Trip BamakoDakar-Casablanca, Prince Claus Fonds; Gasworks’ Studios, London, UK; Rijksakademie, Amsterdam. Holland, amongst others.
In 1994 he curated the exhibition “Indice”, at Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas. From 1999 – 2010 he was the Editor in Chief of “Pulgar”, magazine for contemporary art. In 2000 he organized the 1st. International Workshop for Artists LA LLAMA, Tacata, Edo. Miranda, Venezuela, and was its Director from 2000-2004 (residencies and artistic exchange). From 2003-2013 he created and directed the project “Tipos Móviles “. In 2005 he co-founded Oficina #1, independent space for Contemporary Art in Caracas, where he has organized and curated more than 60 exhibitions and remain its Director to this day. From 2013-2015 he became a member of the board of the graphic artists associated Taller TAGA, Caracas.
In 2015 he will also participate in a solo exhibition “Aenciclopedia” at Sala Mendoza, Caracas, and an anthological exhibition of his work at the Sala TAC of Caracas, Venezuela, in 2016. He lives and works in Caracas, Venezuela