by Evan Senn
Salt Fine Art, a small yet extremely successful gallery in Laguna Beach, has a sharp eye for the best of contemporary Latin American fine art worldwide – even though the gallery serves the oceanfront community of Laguna. Its latest exhibition, “The New Painters,” is a balanced and well-curated group show featuring the work of contemporary painters Alejandro Campins, Andriy Halashyn, Cisco Merel, Joaquin Rodriguez Del Paso and the W (Paz Ulloa and Vinicio Jimenez).
These Latin American artists are pushing the boundaries of traditional painting techniques and content in subtle, yet edgy compositions. The show as a whole is bright and fresh, like many of salt’s shows, but the range of art on exhibit in “The New Painters” is extensive and encompasses many different styles of contemporary painting.
Halashyn is a Costa Rican artist, originally from Ukraine, who is fascinated by color fields and juxtaposing imagery. He plays with a lot of historical fashion imagery, politics and commercially popular culture. You can see graphic design and advertising influence in his work, but the techniques he employs are traditional, with realistic rendering, paired with a contemporary composition.
In his “El Regreso/Return” painting, there is a very interesting political message that just lightly hints at our current state of political unrest, and the similarities and gaps inherent in the generations today.
Del Paso’s work also has a playful nostalgic feeling to it. He imbues traditionally rendered oil paintings with a strong juxtaposition of 1950s imagery and contemporary abstract amorphous shapes. The pairing is confusing and unsettling, but it seems that the two styles are quietly feuding in each painting, fighting for space and domination of the canvas. The work comes off bright and contemporary, even with vintage imagery infused into the composition.
W is a more urban expression of contemporary painting. W represents two artists, Paz Ulloa and Vinicio Jimenez. The partnered style is reminiscent of a fun game of Exquisite Corpse, where one piece of art is passed between the two people, each person adding his or her own additions to help create something more spontaneous and energized. The result is surprisingly good, with some interesting tendencies of comic book/anime art. The pair are young, and have received great praise in Costa Rica, as well as in Panama, Switzerland, New York and now, Laguna Beach.
See the entire exhibit HERE