“La Brisa y el Horizonte”, 60”x50”, 2018
“Asesinado por el Cielo (a Lorca)”, 2016, 60”x50”
In today’s digital milieu, where hiding behind a screen is much more the norm than interacting with the world around you—the real one, not the virtual one—one man continues his quest to paint the world in the spirit of romance. Puerto Rican-born artist Sebastian Vallejo’s large-scale, color-saturated artworks depict poetry in nature paired against the poetry of the written word. In his latest exhibition, Romancero, the Brooklyn-based artist showcases a variety of his artworks through Arlene Angard Gallery at the A&D Building’s Cosentino showroom. The grouping of varying artworks forms a sort of ballad to art, nature, literature and the Caribbean island from which he stems, and which forms a seemingly endless source of inspiration for the artist. Directly inspired by Federica Garcia Lorca’s “Romancero Gitano”—a poetry collection that is essentially an exploratory dance with the subjects that have fascinated poets for as long as poetry has existed—the exhibition also touches on love, death, the moon, and the sky. “Romancero” also explores the artist’s own search for duende—a term Gitano’s reference (especially in Flamenco) when a singer, songwriter, artist, or writer finds the essence and or passion that transforms the work into an otherworldly experience guided by the spirit of passion, or a spirit itself. In these artworks, the artist’s mark is highly visible, not just in the literal sense as he sometimes uses his own hands rather than a brush to make his mark, but in the most ethereal sense of the word. The artworks have duende, and in the spirit of Lorca, they reflect some serious poetry in motion. “Romancero” will be on view at the Cosentino showroom through July 21st , 2018. The opening night party is Thursday, June 21st from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
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