Existing comment:
JULIO VALDEZ
Pandemic Self-Portrait III,
Archival pigment print on Dibond
20 x 27 in.
Courtesy of the artist
ARTIST STATEMENT
I explore portraiture as an imperfect translation of a self that can never be captured. This new pandemic self-portrait is a vehicle for exploring cultural identity, as the COVID-19 pandemic has become a cultural experience that is redefining us from the inside out, as individuals and as a people.
My paintings explore an oceanic landscape at once dreamlike and hallucinatory. I have been exploring images of water as a metaphor for consciousness and the creative process. My creative process reflects my interest in creating a spatial uncertainty, a sense of time not yet defined. In my paintings, I use the "allover technique" to call the attention of the viewer to the entire visual field. I focus on visual aspects (transparency, color saturation, luminosity, forms, etc.) and combine them in such a way that form and content become inseparable. |