Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo: Twenty-Nine Primaveras
February 9 - March 11, 2017
Twenty Nine Primaveras marks the gallery solo debut of Colombian painter Esteban Ocampo-Giraldo. The title is a reference to the artist's age and to the biographical nature of the oil paintings. The show features two bodies of work:
Larger canvases depict scenes drawn from memory and nostalgia merging with grittier allusions to adult life. In deliberate contrast to widely held stereotypes about Colombia, Ocampo-Giraldo celebrates simple moments that reflect small town pleasures. At the same time, these seemingly innocent swimming pools, ping pong games and soccer matches are filled with chaotic masses of adult men, painted, at times, with a raw expressionist roughness, occasionally foreboding and always technically facile. “Netflix and Chill” and "Tocá Ese Cuero" (Touch That Leather) are quieter nocturnal scenes that explore dramatic contrasts of light and dark. In the latter, a large city looms over a makeshift night scene of an improvised playground pitch complete with tiny goal made from an upturned bench. As youthful distractions merge with adult realities, the tone of the narrative is left to interpretation.
A sequence of smaller self portraits add to these often bizarre narrative juxtapositions. Painted with verve in one sitting and without revision, these self-portraits exhibit a diversity of both style and identity. The constant reinvention of self and of artist in these works are oddly cohesive despite their technical and retinal multiplicity.