CONTEMPORARY The Fine Arts Magazine
FREE Summer 2017 Issue No. 6
195 Patriotic Nostalgia
Gaslyght Alien Eyes
TORO The Experimental of the Non-Traditional
B. Mann Metaphor’s Deep Shadows
Reviews/ Commentary/ Exhibitions/ News/ Events
IN THIS ISSUE B. Mann Chiaroscuro Painterly Selections at Carriage House
Matiacio Nostalgic Impressionisms in the Hill Country
The Fine Arts Magazine Summer 2017
PUBLISHER Gabriel Diego Delgado Contributing Writers Gabriel Diego Delgado
IN EVERY ISSUE A Note from the Publisher –P.10 On the Cover—P.11
All artwork photography courtesy of Gabriel Diego Delgado and notated contributions when appropriate Prices are for current artwork, and can change at any time
© 2017 Delgado Consulting and Appraising
Contributors— P.11
Boerne, Texas 78006 210-723-1338 Edited by Gabriel Diego Delgado, Melissa Belgara Design by: Gabriel Diego Delgado
2/
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
3
Introducing
Sidney Sinclair The new artwork of Boerne’s Premier Landscape and Abstract Painter Private Art Sales
4/
|
Corporate Acquisitions
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
The
Fine Art
Collection
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
5
Sidney Sinclair Studio and Gallery
sidneysinclairlee@gmail.com
S. SINCLAIR
The Fine Arts Magazine
FEATURES Summer 2017 Issue No. 6
Jesus Toro Martinez San Pedro Creek Series Second Saturday Lone Star Art Space
6/
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
Taylor Bosworth Aliens Inside Gaslyght Modern Art Gallery 1906 S. Flores
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
7
8/
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
9
A Note from the Publisher Me and my father... some time in the late 1970’s or early 80’s. I always thought he looked like Freddie Mercury. A poet, writer, and artist in his own right, he is currently in the Smithsonian’s permanent art collection in Washington D.C. I grew up listening to rock & roll, thanks to him and his obsession with Cleveland, Ohio radio affiliate WMMS; hence the shirt. Nostalgia, memories, where we have come from and where we are going is a continual theme in this month’s Contemporary Texas Magazine. I wanted to share with you all a bit of where I came from and what helped shape my future.
Contemporary Texas , The Fine Arts Magazine hopes to use its pages as a vehicle to educate, entertain and enlighten our audience on a variety of topics ranging from reviews, news, artist narratives, interviews, criticism and a cohort of other art related stories from within the gallery walls to the major metro centers. I hope you find this informative and hope you continue to follow the artistic happenings around you in your local neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Diego Delgado Publisher delgadoconsultingandappraising@gmail.com
10 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
On the Cover / Contributor
“San Pedro Creek” This painting is a newer work by San Antonio artist, Jesus Toro Martinez. I had a wonderful studio visit with him this summer and was floored by his dynamic gestural and experimental processes. His painting from the San Pedro Creek series is the first official ‘art’ to grace the cover of this magazine. As we evolve as a community vehicle, our plan is to make change to better utilize the pages of this magazine to help promote the regional, national and international presences in the area.
Gabriel Diego Delgado is the owner of Delgado Consulting and Appraising and is the former Gallery Director at .R. Mooney Galleries in Boerne, Texas. He has spent almost a decade in Nonprofit Art Management- working as a Curator of Exhibitions at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art and ArtCar Museum, both in Houston; and as Project Manager of Research and Development at the Museo Alameda, a Smithsonian Affiliate, San Antonio. He has been an Arts Reviewer and critic for over a dozen local, regional and national publications. His artwork has been shown in Arco 2012 Madrid, Spain; New York, New York, MOCA D.C. as well as numerous galleries and venues throughout the U.S. He is competent to appraise fine art and personal property in affiliation with the code of ethics and USPAP standards for the International Society of Appraisers (ISA).
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
11
Art Profile
Jesus Toro Martinez
Lone Star Art Space “Silver swatches radiate like reflective sunspots, harsh but majestic in their beaming beauty, projecting reflective solar qualities beyond the painterly properties.� Jesus Toro Martinez in the studio, painting on the artworks that are part of the San Pedro Creek series.
12 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
Top: Detail of “Fusion”, 60” x 180” Bottom: In progress picture of a large canvas draped on the ground as the artist works flat with nonconventional materials.
San Pedro Creek Series
“Toro arrives at a kind of visually archived record of movement, experiments, automatic markmaking, and primordial release of … as he says it… “demons”. CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
13
Experiments of the Non-Traditional San Pedro Creek Series By Gabriel Diego Delgado
14 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
T
The realization of contemporary artists for the need to experiment is vital in an era of post-contemporary aesthetics…of post-neo hodgepodge…of uber-metamodernism. Currently, many contemporary artists are blending traditional genres; arriving at visual amalgamations that are “uncategorical”. When 2D artists feel trapped with the confines of the typical painting regiments, experimentation can be just as dynamic. Jesus Toro Martinez, a San Antonio artist, looks beyond the traditional mediums of paintings. He circumnavigates the art store purchases to prefer the nontraditional methods of trial and error with materials like rubber, asphalt, gold and silver leaf, industrial paints and brooms as brushes. A South Texas pioneer in this nonconformal aesthetic, Martinez proves beauty in the abstraction can be achieved through processes associated with his own signature methods of art alchemy.
illegal due to city restrictions. He painted them at all times of the day to capture the various overcasts, high noon, soft silhouettes and various degrees of dramatic daylight. In the San Pedro Creek series, I believe Toro offers that same variances of day and night; of twilight and dawn. However, his recollections of a signature tributary in San Antonio is more about a personal language he utilizes to visually describe his visionary depictions. Gestural mark making with hard edge vertices defines trees and branches while compositional decisions lure us into an atmospheric abyss.
“...abstraction can be achieved through processes associated with his own signature methods of art alchemy.”
Part James Hyde, part Cy Twombly, and a sprinkle of Action Painting, Toro arrives at a kind of visually archived record of movement, experiments, automatic mark-making, and primordial release of … as he says it… “demons”. With Toro’s new San Pedro Creek series, I am reminded of the historical and traditional relevance’s of Monet as he painted his beloved gardens, ponds and lilies over 200 times; dedicating the later part of his career to capture the lush vegetation he planted- rumored to be
The panoramic views of the topography cement the allegations that artistic vision supersedes the nature. The peripheral exploitation of Toro’s largest painting in the series delivers a full engulfment that grants us an experience in abstract evocations that transport us into his otherworldly environments. Silver swatches radiate like reflective sunspots, harsh but majestic in their beaming beauty, projecting reflective solar qualities beyond the painterly properties. Even if the titles were not relayed to the viewer, the natural context of these seemingly abstract expressionistic paintings could still be transmitted as the landscape qualities come forth under the gestural elements.
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
15
On a strictly aesthetic level they exist within the contexts of personalized artistic beauty- held in the eye of the creator; weighed heavily with the creation of man-made pigments, industrial materials and nontraditional media. Toro’s language, I believe exists for a moment in space, floating ever so quickly before it hits that canvas as he splatters the paint. It exists in his muscles and arms as he swings his brush, stick or broom. The motor-skill muscle gesture creates the abstract gesture. The mark is an archived rendition of the action, of thought, of release. The ‘demons’ are on the painting, breathing before us, but nonconfrontational in the neutral milieu; acting more as nonverbal emotions that beacon us to investigate the details made from happenstance. When viewing the signature, long horizontal artwork, centered in the Second Saturday exhibit, I instinctually want to view it from left to right and ‘read’ it – panning the surface for clues on deciphering the contextual variables. I validate a congruent horizon line and let my mind wander into the ever-expanding background, the infinite onepoint perspective that leads me along the black silhouettes. The deep contrasts from the black and white push and pull, activating the plane; competing for attention – to show me their secrets; released by the rugged marks that have been carved into the wet ‘paint’. There are thousands of automatic mark-making decisions by Toro across every surface, every media and every ‘color’. Textures turn into 3-D elements that add hypothetical contexts to an over-busy exterior. There are edits, and the re-edits that reveal carefully crafted levels of educated cropping, accidental arrangements and compositional rhythms. The aftermath, on a simple surface quality is overwhelming as I want to investigate each crevice, each mark, each swatch of material evident. Then, I allow it to infiltrate my thoughts, a
16 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“...upright verticals that are centered and interwoven with a sweeping silver splash that cascades from the right…”
conceptual landscape of San Antonio; only then does it all fall into place as I see it through the eyes of artist; capturing the essence of the world around him. “Black & White #2” in the San Pedro Creek series is another success story that offers a condensed energy with its upright verticals that are centered and interwoven with a sweeping silver splash that cascades from the right; flowing through the lines and gushes to the left side. The peeks of glowing red and orange embers on the left side give heavily radiate accents
that contrast the stark hardedged black lines. Carved scars and scrapes are transposed over the entire surface. The artist’s hand dominates over the abstract assets. The hatchmarks, x’s, zig zags, and etchings evoke tribal scarifications– a primordial expression of the world around. Toro leans heavy on his cutting into the paint to respond to the scenic creek wetlands as he
Opposite page/ Top: Detail of painting selections from the San Pedro Creek series that illustrates the carved markings by the artist. Opposite page/ Bottom: Detail of painting selections from the San Pedro Creek series that illustrates the carved markings by the artist. Top: “Black and White #2”, mixed media *All part of the San Pedro Creek Series
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
17
proposes a homage to the waterlines that cut through the city. “Crock Shadow” is one of the more illustrative and pictorial of the new selections. Silver silhouettes of birds as flutter across the composition; creating depth of field as they swoop, loop and glide among the vegetation. We are offered earth tones elements that formulate foreground, midground and background. There is just the right amount of mature editing that arrives at a balanced composition, complete with lustrous fowl.
More of Jesus Toro Martinez’s artwork can be found at his website at: http:// jesustoromartinez.simpl.com/ Currently his art is available in Texas thru Dock Space Gallery, Lone Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX and also available Simon Fine Art Gallery, Paris, FR.
18 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“...etchings evoke tribal scarifications– a primordial expression of the world around.”
Top: “San Antonio: San Pedro Creek”, mixed media Left: “Crock Shadow”, mixed media Right: “Black and White #1”, mixed media
Photographs by Gabriel Diego Delgado and Courtesy of Jesus Toro Martinez Location: Lone Star Art Space, Southtown, San Antonio Exhibition: July Second Saturday events 2017
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
19
20 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
21
22 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
23
Aliens Inside
By Gabriel Diego Delgado
24 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
A dreamy and surrealistic alien motif dominates the new exhibition of works by artist, Taylor Bosworth at Gaslyght Modern for the Second Saturday feature for the month of July and August 2017.
Photographs by Gabriel Diego Delgado Location: Gaslyght Studios and Gallery Exhibition: Aliens Inside of Taylor Bosworth Gallery Owner: James Saldivar Image: “You Are An Aperture Through Which The Universe is looking At”, Oil on canvas, 30” x 40”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
25
A
A dreamy and surrealistic alien motif dominates the new exhibition of works by artist, Taylor Bosworth at Gaslyght Modern for the Second Saturday feature for the month of July and August 2017. Each painting fits neatly into a self-described category of inner ‘unease’ that is about ‘fantasy and dream imagery’; all dominated with carefully rendered human eyes.
Left: “Incarnate Gaps In Time and Space”, Oil on Canvas, 24” x 30”, 2017, $850 Right: “All Memory Can Do Is Scream For Touch”, Oil on Canvas, 30” x 40”, 2017, $1500
They are genderless; the flowers and nature allude to birth, rebirth and maybe even a stretched sense of contemporary terms of sexuality in this era of overt fluidity in a postLGBT epoch. The artist’s transcendent reflection of her hike on the Inca trail and an inner transformation due to this trip is less evident on the surface of understanding these paintings; an ephemeral quality maybe only allowed by the creator in the midst of the creation. However, there are things that intrigue me. I appreciate the subtle differences in each painting, simplistic decisions that allow her to investigate more deliberate attempts of purposeful compositional figures and configurations instead of the ever-expanding reach of the ambiguous and genderless entities, and embryonic pods. I think art historically, one reference the artist does not include in her contemporary
26 /
“Bosworth goes further with her selfexploration of the inner world of met transcendence infused with undefine discourses, allegorical methodology a constituents.”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
-directed taphysical ed sexual and cellular
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
27
“Giving Birth To Yourself”, Oil on Canvas,
influences is the Surrealist artist, Yves Tanguy. There is a certain air about her paintings that bring me back to his sparse landscapes with abstract shapes, intriguingly organic shapes, and giant amoebae.
30” x 40”, 2017, NFS
Yes, the eyes are the gateway to the soul, as they say, but here, the metaphysical journey into a subconsciousness stays at the surface of the ambiguity. I feel I do not have a direct conjectural voyage to these “alien” essences. I am gridlocked by the crowd effect. The overbearing intensity of a dozen eyes forces me to step back; experiencing a moment of unabashed disenchantment…a sort of uninvited repulsion. The artist’s deliberate “uneasy” feeling is evident.
“Making a Karma Repair Kit”, Oil on Panel, 24” x 24”, 2017, $750
28 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“Incarnate Gaps in Time and Space”, a 24” x 30” oil on canvas painting conjures more of a Freudian appeal. This painting for me seems more successful due to the overt subjective quality of the imagery. It clearly depicts a ‘human” face in which we are gazing down upon the person from the crown. The main eye on the right is looking up to the viewer and we can decipher the bridge of the nose. However, taken in that context, the multiple eyes, faces, appearances, apparitions, and jesuitic energies confined in the backside of the brain leave much to discover. They can be the multiple voices in all our heads, the battle of good and evil, the moral compasses we all inherit. They could be the voices of those around us, the nurture in the nature – driving us to make decisions and become the voices of reason in a civil society. Or, they can be the Id, Ego and Superego within us striving for
Detail of “Collective Hallucination”, Oil on Canvas, 18” x 24”, 2017, $1000
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
29
30 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
attention to direct the survival instinct within the urban jungle. In “Morphing the Spirit and the Soul”, Bosworth delivers a more overt sexual depiction of sorts. This painting emits a female body aura. Feminine overtones are produced by the impressionistic floral depictions and the curvature of a compelling and profiled nude. The flesh tone accents reinforce the human form while the protruding organic curve on the top right aligns as some sort of bust. A contemporary portrayal of the famous Venus of Willendorf? When Bosworth decides to add color to the backgrounds of her paintings, instead of leaving them white or canvas color, the hue of choice weighs heavy with coded intentionality. The black and dark fillers overwhelm the paintings with an air of depression; moody and emotional voids that float the image in a hyperbole of downheartedness that seems to satisfy the multi-eyed being with some gothic delight. “All Memory Can Do Is Scream for Touch” has a wisp of movement from the white sweeps that come off the cosmic ciliate. The blue background reinforces the movement by acting as a water source. The ripples reverberate off the “alien”. A cerulean liquid provides a home for the specimen that would fascinate even Jacques Cousteau. My favorite of the triptych of paintings that have no background color is the centered “Giving Birth to Yourself”. A strong vertical composition is unruffled in this floral entwinement of eyes and flower pedals. The creepers make an outline that reminds me in a ‘quasi-religious’ sensibility of the holy depiction of the Our Lady of Guadalupe…The shroud, the
Opposite Page: “Morphing the Spirit and the Soul”, Oil on Canvas, 18” x 24”, 2017, $750 Top: Detail of “Giving Birth to Yourself” Middle: Detail of “You Are An Aperture Through Which The Universe Is looking At” Bottom: Detail of “You Are An Aperture Through Which The Universe Is Looking At”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
31
alter, the phantom of faith. The impregnated imagery within the belly of the entity adds multidimensional judgement and scholarly religious approach.
“The impregnated imagery within the belly of the entity adds multidimensional judgement and scholarly religious approach.”
In some of the paintings the illustrative qualities of the floral representations are not up to par with Bosworth’s carefully eye renders. Painted side by side, you can see this comparison more evidently.
Aside from my critical in-depth conclusive metaphors and critically misguided meanings and evaluations, I cannot help but state I am also reminded of the scene in Nightmare on Elm Street where Freddie Krueger opens
his shirt and we see all the faces of his victims pressing their hands and face against the inside of his skin, pushing out with frightening
impressions. All in all, Pinterest is littered with paintings and drawings of eyes. Bosworth goes further with her self-directed exploration of the inner world of metaphysical transcendence infused with undefined sexual discourses, allegorical methodology and cellular constituents. More of Taylor Bosworth’s artwork can be found on her website at:
http://taylorbosworth.squarespace.com/ All Memory Can Do Is Scream For Touch”, Oil on Canvas, 30” x 40”, 2017, $1500
32 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
33
34 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
35
NOSTALGIC
IMPRESSIONISMS of Leslie Matiacio
Written by Gabriel Diego Delgado
36 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
Photographs by Gabriel Diego Delgado Location: Gallery 195 Exhibition: Leslie Matiacio: Guest Artist Image: “Texas Truck”, 36” x 60”, acrylic on canvas
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
37
L
Leslie Matiacio was the guest artist on display at Gallery 195 for the month of July 2017. Matiacio, an Art Teacher for NISD displayed what she describes as, “Impressionistic Pop Art”. A self-curated selection of patriotic carculture driven impressionistic reminiscences was right in order for the Fourth of July celebrations in this small Hill Country town gallery. There was a consistent hit and miss underlying her exhibition. The successful compositions like the ¾ profile of the yellow grill and headlight, the front-on personality of the red cruiser and even the keynote speaker and the nationalistic nostalgias of the red Ford truck harbor just enough swatches of color, defining contour and illustrious chrome to entice all gearheads and small-town charmers alike. When Matiacio paints, she says she often asks
38 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
Top: “Wine & Sunshine”, 24” x 36”, acrylic on canvas Bottom: Installation view of wall in Gallery 195 of Leslie Matiacio’s artwork
herself, “What is the least information I can show to give the viewer the impression of what I am painting?” An active member of the Boerne Professional Artist association, Matiacio states, “I want my work to be engaging, nostalgic, and fun for the viewer.” I must hand it to Matiacio though, sometimes you paint for your audience, sometimes you paint for yourself. She knows exactly what she wants her artwork to do. With Boerne hosting numerous Hot Rod nights, the Key to the Hills Hot Rod Run, and the Texas Corvette Annual Open Car Show Matiacio might have a built-in audience for this kind of artwork. Let me take a moment to discuss some aspects within some of these “Impressionistic Pop Art “painting. In “Texas Truck”, a sizable 36” x 60’ acrylic on canvas, Matiacio illustrates a 70’s / 80’s ish square fronted Ford Truck. A Silver-ish Blue paint job accents the decades old pick up. The left angled one-point perspective pushes the pristine bumper, headlights, and grill into the forefront of the picture plane. As an artist, she renders just enough detail for the viewer, pushing the image to the peripherals of realism. Broad strokes of varied tones of blue create the shadows that dance across the hood and cab; casted by the surrounding trees. Her simplistic style works for definition in the main subject of the painting. But, applying the same sensibility to the background nulls the painting. The blasé brown ground seems a bit flat while the five or six green tones in the back trees are too rudimentary to carefully balance the relationship of the truck to the environment. I get it.... the truck is the main thing the artist wants us to see in the painting, while all the rest is subpar, but there has to be more attention paid the other elements in the painting. The background and road surface seem to me to be afterthoughts, unfinished in their nonchalant connection to the truck. If the pick-up is the main focus, the delivery
is essential in impressionism – My thought…. Delete everything else, there is no need for a narrative of its surroundings. We are only concerned with glass, chrome, metal and angular reflections of the auto and how they define the contours and planes of the subject. “Wine & Sunshine” is of similar criticisms. The painting seems flat, the brush strokes are mostly the same width; while most of the coveted impressionistic attention is paid to the wine barrels in the back of the truck bed. The painting works more like an underpainting or a studio study than a finalized piece. However, “Chubby Chevy”, a 24” x 36” acrylic on canvas, is direct to my point. The up-close and
“I want my work to be engaging, nostalgic, and fun for the viewer.” personal composition erases any need for an activated background, because the car dominates. The artist chose to just paint the rest of the canvas out with flat washes which helps us ignore the background’s importance and allow us to enjoy the cruising. The orange underpainting that she uses throughout the full exhibition selections adds another level of radiate energy for this painting. It helps activate the chrome, adding additional dimension to the reflective quality of the chrome. I am surprised how effective this painting is due to the subdued palette and minimal tonal variations; but she is successful in the impressionistic portrayal of such horsepower. Let’s switch ‘gears’ for a moment and take a look at the two smaller paintings that are stacked together on the wall arrangement: “Buckhorn Baths” and
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
39
and “Wildlife Museum”. This duo is not the typical nostalgic car-porn but something more interesting. In the same nostalgic mannerisms of the automobiles, Matiacio executes two small urban landscape paintings. These highway / roadside tourist signs are charming in their patinaed midcentury appeal. On clear sunny day we see the rustic qualities of these American Picker’s daydream. Hard edged curves and flowing delineations illustrates the hand painted fonts and stylized art of highway signs; a lost art in itself. I feel these two paintings are the underrepresented VIP’s of the selections. They hold all the wanted nostalgia mixed with impressionistic simplicity while giving us a rejuvenation of hipster wistfulness. “Glorious Ford”, the main painting commemorating all that is American, sits proudly at the front door of the gallery, inviting all those in, to celebrate the jingoistic jubilee that is a city like Boerne’s charm. Flag…check, Old truck…check…Main Street… check….Yes, there is no ironic sarcastic blasphemous contexts that I can superimpose on such iconic imagery. It is too deliberate, not coded, and forevermore simplistically sincere. For more of Leslie Matiacio’s artwork, visit http://lesliematiacio.weebly.com/ Top: “Buckhorn Baths”, 20” x 20”, acrylic on canvas Bottom: “Wildlife Museum”, 20” x 20”, acrylic on canvas Opposite Page: “Glorious Ford”, 20” x 20”, acrylic on canvas
40 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“...commemorating all that is American, sits proudly at the front door of the gallery, inviting all those in, to celebrate the jingoistic jubilee that is a city like Boerne’s charm.”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
41
42 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
43
Ready-Set-Salt
“A Single Pear”
44 /
Bonnie Mann Carriage House Gallery of Artists
The Chiaroscuro Selections Written by Gabriel Diego Delgado
Chiaroscuro is an oil painting technique, developed during the Renaissance, that uses strong tonal contrasts between light and dark to model threedimensional forms, often to dramatic effect. The deep pockets of gloomy chiaroscuro effects in paintings have often intrigued me; a visual accent of spotlighted melancholia. A veil of downheartedness seemingly looms in the background as I explore the contextual muses within each painting. In my monthly carouse through the galleries in the Texas Hill Country, I stumbled upon the new work by Boerne artist, Bonnie Mann. What caught me by surprise in her selections were a new three-part series of small paintings that were titled, “Ready”, “Set”, “Salt”. Simplistic in its appellation, this triumvirate spoke volumes of skilled rendering and traditional applications of an age-old technique. In comparing these works with Mann’s
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
other selections, they stood out. The continual narrative was cohesive and prolonged your attention to the paintings, while the other still-lifes and traditional compositions where more banal; in comparison. For me, “Ready”, “Set”, “Salt” had this Odd Nerdrum-esque appeal. It exudes this subjective kitschy plea mixed with an underlining allegorical appeal. From painting one, “Ready”, to painting two, “Set” there has been movement, damage, purity destroyed. “Ready” is more of the “OMMM” mantra before the alter, the quieting of the Monkey Mind. All is silent… there is a huge contradiction between the fragility of the white egg and shell vs. the hardened and textured brick. The shell is clean and smooth, virgin-like in its angelic glow. The brick is rattled with old mortar, once held in place as part of a larger whole. The egg signifies birth, while the brick’s longevity and purpose has been used up. “Set”, delivers a metaphorical prose of extirpation. So much is lost, no visual clues lay ground on how to elucidate the
“A veil of downheartedness seemingly looms in the background as I explore the contextual muses within each painting.”
Photographs Courtesy of Bonnie Mann and AdTech Location: Carriage House Gallery of Artists Exhibition: Selections by Bonnie Mann Image: “Blues and Orange”
equation. What impalpable entity lays claim to the demise of the innocent. The brick, the sole witness to such brutality, is ‘stone-faced’ and rigid in its stance; unnerved by a culinary ruthlessness. What’s quite interesting in today’s political climate is the true allegorical meaning behind the original story of “Humpty Dumpty”. It has always had a symbolic meaning representing people, household, nations, etc. that fell apart. In the era of a divided Trump-mocracy, there is much to be said with an image created today, like this, in these turbulent times.
“...It exudes this subjective kitschy plea mixed with an underlining allegorical appeal.”
Yes, the same brick, glistening glass reflections and two scraps of evidence; of deliberate crumbs to show narrative context– or to demonstrate corroboration with the unseen forces at work.
“Salt”, is a duo of typical table condiments, a steady fixture in many household kitchens. A pairing that dates back to the seventieth-century French cuisine.
The metaphorical narrative continues as we observe the ‘yin and yang’ of pantry seasonings. Slightly apart from each other, they
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
45
…“OMMM”…the quieting of the Monkey Mind. All is silent…”
46 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“Ready”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
47
“What impalpable entity lays claim to the demise of the innocent.”
48 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“Set”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
49
“Salt”
bask in the unidirectional light. Fragile in their makeup, the glass contrasts with the brick, creating a second dissimilarity as we saw in the first painting. However, the shell – two small morsels lie face down like defiant soldiers; heroic stayers left behind when the corrupt strongholds were compromised by the revolutionists. All in all, I believe Mann, a traditionalist was grappling with some inner demons, internal conflicts which needed to be resolved. She takes us through a mystery pictorial equation as she grapples with emotions. I like it. Quirky, Kitschy and emblematic of the current dire of contemporary culture.
More of Bonnie Mann’s artwork can be found at Carriage House Gallery of Artists 110 Rosewood Ave., Boerne, TX 78006 830.248.1184.
50 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
“...the shell – two small morsels lie face down like defiant soldiers; heroic stayers left behind when the corrupt strongholds were compromised by the revolutionists.”
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
51
Image Courtesy of James Saldivar and Maria D. Garza
52 /
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine
CONTEMPORARY TEXAS The Fine Arts Magazine /
53