Omar Rodriguez-Graham
MARC STRAUS is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works by Mexico City based artist Omar Rodriguez-Graham. This will be Rodriguez-Graham’s third one-person exhibition with the gallery.
Omar Rodriguez-Graham’s paintings are the results of his ongoing exploration in the terrains of color, texture, and time. His points of departure are historical Renaissance or Baroque figurative paintings. He then digitally deconstructs the image until there is an almost unrecognizable abstract composition. To this he begins to make further choices as to paint texture, colors, and shaping. In these recent oil paintings, the bands of colors partly determine the edges of the painting; they splay out to the periphery as shards or arrows. By not constricting the painting to a rectangle or circle he allows the colors, textures, and shapes on the interior to determine the edges. The result is a dynamic composition which allows the paintings to also function as wall sculptures.
As he transforms the figurative painting into abstraction, Rodriguez-Graham retains various references from the sources of the image. Later he overexposes them on one another, as semi-transparent layers, resulting in overlapping fields that remind us of early photomontages as well as cubist paintings both experimenting with capturing movement – or an object shown from different perspectives at the same time – within a still image. The time of conception, the time of construction, and the time of perception are all considered in his methodical approach. In other words, this is his way of compressing time and capturing the process of image making with the same gesture.
In these works, his color sensibility mostly begins with the palettes of Southern European painters. There are bright primary colors combined with softer pastel tones. These unique abstract paintings 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 history of art.
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).