October 20 - December 18, 2022
Omar Rodriguez-Graham’s work is the result of an ongoing exploration to find the meeting point between the recognizable and the abstract. His work begins with the use of recognizable images from historic Renaissance paintings as an armature to place marks.
In a carefully planned process, Rodriguez-Graham digitally modifies these historic paintings to an unrecognizable abstraction. These digital sketches are then translated into actual large-format paintings. A patchy sky, a stark insignia, colorful regalia, limbs and weaponry are the substrates for a reconsidered image.
As with the calculated approach of Renaissance painters, Rodriguez-Graham methodically assigns different colors, textures and techniques to specific areas, slowly constructing each plane. Even the shape and scale of canvases are carefully considered. As he builds the painting, Rodriguez-Graham welcomes moments of improvisation, experimenting with different ways of applying oil paint in each passage of the picture. This is his way of compressing and tackling various moments of art history.
And yet in the end, these very contemporary abstract paintings feel related to the Renaissance. They are bold and charged with vitality and emotion. By opening a dialogue with the great painters in history, Rodriguez-Graham is an artist fully aware of the progression of abstraction in the last seventy years.
Omar Rodriguez-Graham (1978, México) lives and works in Mexico City. His work has been shown both individually and collectively in North America, Europe and South America. Some of his recent solo shows include: Primer Ensayo, Arróniz Gallery, México; Tete a Tete, Drew University, USA; Rafagas, Wu Galería, Peru; and Anamnesis, Casa Del Lago / Museo de la Ciudad de Queretaro, México. Rodriguez-Graham’s work has been included in institutional exhibitions such as: El Cordón Umbilical Retiniano III. Ontologías Pictóricas, Fundación ESPAC, México; México: Pintura Reactiva, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, México; El Hombre al Desnudo, Museo Nacional de Arte, México; The 15th Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial, Museo Tamayo, México; and Bella y Terca, Museo de Arte Moderno, México, among others.
Rodriguez-Graham graduated with a BA from Drew University in Madison, NJ, USA in 2003 and received his MFA in Painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, USA in 2005. He has been a recipient of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores fellowship, and he has twice been a recipient of FONCA’s Beca de Jovenes Creadores fellowship. Among the residencies he has attended are Fondazione MACC, Italy; The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA; and The Banff Centre, Canada. His work is held in private and public collections in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, México, Peru, Singapore, the United States of America, and Venezuela. He has scheduled forthcoming institutional solo exhibitions at: Fundacion Calosa, México (2022); Fondazione MACC, Italy (2023); Hopsicio Cabañas, México (2023–24); the Sala de Arte Publica Siqueiros, México (2024); Museo de Arte e Historia de Guanajuato, México (2024).
Selected Works
Memorias de Una Vida
2022
Oil and acrylic on linen mounted on wood panel
70.9 x 66.5 x 2 in (180 x 169 x 5 cm)
Colibrí Azul
2022
Oil and acrylic on linen mounted on wood panel
70.9 x 66.9 x 1.5 in (180 x 170 x 4 cm)
Un Estandarte Perdido
2022
Oil and acrylic on linen mounted on wood panel
70.9 x 70.5 x 2 in (180 x 179 x 5 cm)
Gravity's Rainbow
2020
Acrylic and oil on canvas on panel
86.8 x 80.7 in
220 x 205 cm
Llamaradas de Otoño
2020
Acrylic and oil on canvas on panel
47.2 x 42.9 in
120 x 109 cm
La Anciana de las 3 Navajas
2020
Oil and acrylic on linen mounted on panel
78.7 x 72.8 inches (200 x 185 cm)
Jacaranda
2020
Oil and acrylic on linen mounted on panel
78.8 x 72 in (200 x 183 cm)
Parvada
2020
Oil & Acrylic on Linen Mounted on Panel
70.866 x 64.961 in (180 x 165 cm)
Dueña de Luna
2020
Acrylic and oil on canvas on panel
78.7 x 74 inches (200 x 188 cm)
Temporal Shift
2020
Oil and acrylic on linen
13.4 x 11.8 in (34 x 30 cm)
Forester
2020
Oil on Linen laid on Wood
9.4 x 9 in (24 x 23 cm)
Structural Fog
2017
Oil on Linen
60 x 60 inches (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Tidal
2017
Oil on Linen
67 x 56 inches(170 x 142 cm)
Roche Limit
2017
Oil on Linen
67 x 56 inches (170 x 142 cm)
