Country:
Venue:
Categories:
Exhibition Type:
How many exhibition works:
- 10 - 19
New York, NY – Forum Gallery presents an exhibition of new paintings by the internationally-known Spanish painter, Guillermo Muñoz Vera, opening April 12 through May 25, 2018. The exhibition, Analogies & Dichotomies / Analogías & Dicotomías, embodies the subject of Muñoz Vera’s current body of work: the contrast of light and shadow, the relationship of time and space, the similarity of past and present, and the impact of globalism on the world. The twelve oil paintings on view depict nature, architecture, technology, commerce and man, each work provoking the viewer to explore the similarities and differences that the Artist perceives.
The striking views of the city, the ocean, and life itself are infused with the Artist’s powerful and atmospheric use of light. The cover painting, The Fallen Angel (El Ángel Caido), 2017, illuminates a nineteenth-century bronze sculpture against the dramatic contemporary night skyline of Madrid, bringing the contrast between old and new in the composition of our cities into focus. But just as important, the figure in the sculpture is the “fallen angel” of the title, and falling, to the Artist, implies “disgrace, an unexpected shift from light to darkness.” By casting light on the sculpture, Muñoz Vera reverses the shift, giving the sculpture life and a substantial measure of grace.
In Climate Change (Cambio Climatíco), 2017, a fisherman calmly waits for his catch near the shadow of a palm tree as an enormous iceberg drifts by, unaware of its powerful, intimidating presence. And in Ophelia of the Ganges (Ofelia del Ganges), 2010, Muñoz Vera places an innocent child in the midst of a fully realized, polluted stream.
Throughout this exhibition, the Artist’s fourth with Forum Gallery, Guillermo Muñoz Vera uses his luminous surfaces, harmonious color and old-master technique to illuminate his contemporary ideas about modernity. Although the locales of the paintings are defined, the breadth of perceptive thought makes them infinite and universal. Similarly, the concept, Analogies & Dichotomies, can be applied to each painting on view, but is understood best when the entire exhibition is considered as a whole. In his catalogue foreword, the Artist states, “Analogies and Dichotomies suggests a unifying reflection which speaks of universalities without ignoring the peculiarities: it transforms the clash of frontiers into geographical vicinity, not a confrontation of insoluble opposites.”
###
Guillermo Muñoz Vera: Analogies & Dichotomies / Analogías & Dicotomías opens with a reception for the artist on Thursday, April 12, 2018 from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, and will be on view through Saturday, May 25, 2018.
Forum Gallery is located at 475 Park Avenue at 57th Street, New York, NY 10022. Please visit forumgallery.com/exhibitions/current-season to view the entire exhibition online. The exhibition begins on April 12, 2018 and will be on view through May 25, 2018. Forum Gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 5:30 pm. A full-color catalogue is available from the gallery.
For more information, please contact Kevin Dao, 212-355-4545; kevin@forumgallery.com
Artist:
Guillermo Munoz Vera is an internationally known Chilean artist who has lived and worked in Spain for thirty years. Continuing and personalizing the tradition of Spanish realists from Diego Velasquez (1599 -1660) through Anotonio Lopez Garcia (b. 1936), Munoz Vera paints portraits, narratives, still lifes, landscapes and history paintings that have been exhibited by museums and galleries throughout the United States, Europe and in Latin America. In 2002, Madrid’s Centro Cultural de la Villa mounted a retrospective exhibition of Munoz Vera’s work, and published a catalogue with 350 illustrations to accompany the show. There have been 20 more monographic publications featuring the artist’s paintings and drawings.
Guillermo Munoz Vera has exhibited at Forum Gallery since 2005. Always interested in subjects whose current interest is equaled by their historic significance, his first solo exhibition was of narrative paintings of Cuba. In 2011, the Artist conceived and executed a second solo exhibition, Terra Australis Incognita, a look at the role of Spanish exploration in the development of the New World. In 2014, Forum Gallery presented The Light of the Alhambra, a dramatic exhibition focused on Munoz Vera’s paintings of the Palace and Fortress in Andalusia that has become a Unesco World Heritage site.
Guillermo Munoz Vera was commissioned to create large-scale paintings for the central train station of Santiago del Chile in 2002, and the installation, paintings of the natural wonders of Chile, is visited by thousands of visitors annually.
475 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022
