Latin American artist
explore depths
By Ryan Bachman
The Metropolitan
The Rule Gallery shows the differing light of the new generation of Latin American art.
The Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery, in conjunction with the Broadway Corridor Arts Allianceâs First Fridays, is showing the works of two distinctly different artists.
The eight canvases that make up Ricardo Mazalâs Yellow Circle series of paintings cover the four walls of the gallery. They surround the viewer with a theoretical circle of 60- by 54-inch oils.
The girth of the paintings dwarf the viewer, drawing them into a meditative circle of the soft and sometimes luminating yellow and white marbled veins of the oil.
All Mazalâs paintings, however similar they are, carry an emotional inclination and for whatever articulation they lack, they all harmonize into one resonant and harmonious pitch.
Mazal was born in Mexico City and began painting in Spain in the mid-1980s. Since then, he has been the subject of many exhibitions throughout Mexico, Spain and the United States. He now works out of New York City.
In the studio adjacent to Mazal is a series of six pieces done by former Denver resident Jesus Polanco. He is one of Coloradoâs most well-known painters and has received nationwide attention.
Polancoâs art is somewhat of a departure from typical Latin American art. He uses brilliant shapes and colors to abstractly question religion and the physical and psychological human condition.
ãI explore the affinities between modes of perception (represented by the abstract quality of the work) and empirical knowledge (represented by the fragmented body),ä Polanco said describing his own approach to painting.
Polancoâs works are comprised of a variety of media, including encaustic, vinyl paints, inks, collage, artistâs tapes and artificial resins.
His imagery is created from ideas of abstraction and representation; his art dismembers religion and the self by literally cutting up the human anatomy and intermingling it with verse.
ãA frantic running from silence, a great silence overcomes me ... And I wonder why I ever thought to use language,ä Polanco has scribed in the artistâs statement accompanying his work, The Shape of My Tongue.
For the work Nightchorus he writes, ãYou are all a chorus, and in your sleeperâs river, you sleep.ä Polanco tries to express psychic and emotional depths through his work..
Polanco was born in Mexico City and graduated from Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in Denver. In 1991, he was presented with a Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities Works on Paper Fellowship.
In 1995, he received the New York Foundation for the Arts Drawing Fellowship. Polanco was also selected the same year year by the Bronx Museum of the Arts for its 17th annual exhibition.
The Mazal and Polanco show runs through Oct. 30. Rule Modern and Contemporary Gallery is located at 111 Broadway, directly across from the Mayan Theatre. The gallery is open from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday or by appointment.
