Luis Roldán: Strange Likeness
Henrique Faria, New York is pleased to present Strange Likeness, Luis Roldán’s fifth solo exhibition in the gallery. The exhibition’s title references the uncanny, the mysterious, the extraordinary, the explicable that lies just out of reach. Bringing together the artist’s most recent ceramic work with paintings and works on paper from the late 1980s and 90s, this exhibition examines these works’ remarkable resemblances and the connections that link these different works together across time and medium. As the curator and art historian James Mundy opens the exhibition text, “Those who have followed the artistic career of Luis Roldán and its many layers of evolutionary expression will have been struck by the single important constant in over forty years of growth—an absolute dedication to structure.” With this guiding principle underlying his work, Roldán has been able to experiment across mediums and techniques, colors and applications, yet still produce a body of work that is as varied as it is cohesive.
The earliest paintings included in the exhibition, Reflexiones (Reflections) date from 1989, but as can be retroactively inferred from their title and formal attributes, they set a foundation which Roldán both builds upon and returns to in the following years. Despite their small format of 3 x 5 in., the works’ surfaces are built up with color, both pigment and wax, and the forms configured therein exude an expansiveness that threatens to overtake their supports’ physical borders. The prominent forms shift between abstract and almost reconizable, like ocarina wind instruments or profiles with mask-like features, and interact with smaller capsule shapes that lie in the foreground. Acknowledging what the significance of the forms explored in Reflexiones would have in future works – such as Perfil (Profile), which further explores formal qualities of the mask, and Diálogos (Dialogues), an abstract composition featuring ovoid shapes, which were made ten years later in 1999 – Mundy asserts that Reflexiones “[serve] as a kind of Duchampian boîte-en-valise avant le lettre.”
Roldán also explored biomorphic forms, as seen in the paintings and works on paper from the series Pasado ficticio (Fictitious Past, 1990) that feature vine-like or molecular arrangements and cellular bodies. And it is these motifs that have informed his newest work, Strange Likeness (2019-2020), which also marks his recent foray into ceramic arts. As Mundy writes of this current series, “he has created three-dimensional artifacts that seem to have stepped out of his early paintings”. These pieces also both evade and encourage identification: they are coated in a matte-black glaze, have surfaces punctured with small holes and protrusions extending outwards from the main body; some stand alone and others contain mingling counterparts. Allusions can be made to the arcane ceremonial clay objects of Pre-Colombian peoples or to wind instruments, such as the ocarina, but these silent objects offer no other clues. Each piece is hand-formed and unique but still unmistakenly reminiscent, reflections of the works that have come before it.
As Mundy concludes, “Perhaps that is the point of the exercise—to utilize historical time to lend structure to the
creations of the present day. Roldán finds the structural matrix wherever it is to be found whether in the laws of physics or the temporal continuum and this mode of discovery is the path to harmony.”
Luis Roldán (Cali, Colombia, 1955) studied art history at the École du Louvre (Paris), engraving at S.W. Hayter (Paris) and architecture at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia). He has exhibited extensively at institutions internationally. A selection of solo shows includes: Periplo. Una retrospectiva 1986-2016, Banco de la República, Bogotá (2016); Expiación, Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá (2014); Presión y flujo, Galería Casas Reigner, Bogotá (2014); Umbra, Eidola, Mechanical Ventilation. Interactions with Willys de Castro and Other Voices, Henrique Faria, New York (2017, 2015, 2013 and 2011); Transparencias, Museum of Modern Art, Medellín (2011); Continua, Sicardi Gallery, Houston (2007); Acerca de las estructuras, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, San José, Costa Rica (2006) and Permutantes, Sala Mendoza, Caracas (2005). Selected group shows include: 44th Salon of National Artists, Pereira (2016); the First Biennial of Cartagena (2014); the Tenth Monterrey Biennial (2012); the 53rd Venice Biennale, Latin America Pavilion (2009); and Dibujos, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires (2004). He has won numerous awards such as the Luis Caballero Award (Bogotá, 2001) and the National Award in Visual Arts (Colombia, 1996). His work is included in important collections such as Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Museo del Barrio and Deutsche Bank Collection, New York; FEMSA Collection, Monterrey; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami and the Museums of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Medellín. He lives and works both in New York City and Bogotá.
For press inquires please contact Eugenia Sucre, Director, at eugenia@henriquefaria.com
Luis Roldán: Strange Likeness
Henrique Faria, New York is pleased to present Strange Likeness, Luis Roldán’s fifth solo exhibition in the gallery. The exhibition’s title references the uncanny, the mysterious, the extraordinary, the explicable that lies just out of reach. Bringing together the artist’s most recent ceramic work with paintings and works on paper from the late 1980s and 90s, this exhibition examines these works’ remarkable resemblances and the connections that link these different works together across time and medium. As the curator and art historian James Mundy opens the exhibition text, “Those who have followed the artistic career of Luis Roldán and its many layers of evolutionary expression will have been struck by the single important constant in over forty years of growth—an absolute dedication to structure.” With this guiding principle underlying his work, Roldán has been able to experiment across mediums and techniques, colors and applications, yet still produce a body of work that is as varied as it is cohesive.
The earliest paintings included in the exhibition, Reflexiones (Reflections) date from 1989, but as can be retroactively inferred from their title and formal attributes, they set a foundation which Roldán both builds upon and returns to in the following years. Despite their small format of 3 x 5 in., the works’ surfaces are built up with color, both pigment and wax, and the forms configured therein exude an expansiveness that threatens to overtake their supports’ physical borders. The prominent forms shift between abstract and almost reconizable, like ocarina wind instruments or profiles with mask-like features, and interact with smaller capsule shapes that lie in the foreground. Acknowledging what the significance of the forms explored in Reflexiones would have in future works – such as Perfil (Profile), which further explores formal qualities of the mask, and Diálogos (Dialogues), an abstract composition featuring ovoid shapes, which were made ten years later in 1999 – Mundy asserts that Reflexiones “[serve] as a kind of Duchampian boîte-en-valise avant le lettre.”
Roldán also explored biomorphic forms, as seen in the paintings and works on paper from the series Pasado ficticio (Fictitious Past, 1990) that feature vine-like or molecular arrangements and cellular bodies. And it is these motifs that have informed his newest work, Strange Likeness (2019-2020), which also marks his recent foray into ceramic arts. As Mundy writes of this current series, “he has created three-dimensional artifacts that seem to have stepped out of his early paintings”. These pieces also both evade and encourage identification: they are coated in a matte-black glaze, have surfaces punctured with small holes and protrusions extending outwards from the main body; some stand alone and others contain mingling counterparts. Allusions can be made to the arcane ceremonial clay objects of Pre-Colombian peoples or to wind instruments, such as the ocarina, but these silent objects offer no other clues. Each piece is hand-formed and unique but still unmistakenly reminiscent, reflections of the works that have come before it.
As Mundy concludes, “Perhaps that is the point of the exercise—to utilize historical time to lend structure to thecreations of the present day. Roldán finds the structural matrix wherever it is to be found whether in the laws of physics or the temporal continuum and this mode of discovery is the path to harmony.”
Luis Roldán (Cali, Colombia, 1955) studied art history at the École du Louvre (Paris), engraving at S.W. Hayter (Paris) and architecture at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia). He has exhibited extensively at institutions internationally. A selection of solo shows includes: Periplo. Una retrospectiva 1986-2016, Banco de la República, Bogotá (2016); Expiación, Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá (2014); Presión y flujo, Galería Casas Reigner, Bogotá (2014); Umbra, Eidola, Mechanical Ventilation. Interactions with Willys de Castro and Other Voices, Henrique Faria, New York (2017, 2015, 2013 and 2011); Transparencias, Museum of Modern Art, Medellín (2011); Continua, Sicardi Gallery, Houston (2007); Acerca de las estructuras, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, San José, Costa Rica (2006) and Permutantes, Sala Mendoza, Caracas (2005). Selected group shows include: 44th Salon of National Artists, Pereira (2016); the First Biennial of Cartagena (2014); the Tenth Monterrey Biennial (2012); the 53rd Venice Biennale, Latin America Pavilion (2009); and Dibujos, Museum of Modern Art, Buenos Aires (2004). He has won numerous awards such as the Luis Caballero Award (Bogotá, 2001) and the National Award in Visual Arts (Colombia, 1996). His work is included in important collections such as Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Museo del Barrio and Deutsche Bank Collection, New York; FEMSA Collection, Monterrey; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami and the Museums of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Medellín. He lives and works both in New York City and Bogotá.
For press inquires please contact Eugenia Sucre, Director, at eugenia@henriquefaria.com
