Leave it to a Latin American master and Los Angeles to break Old Man Winter’s grip with a fresh dose of liquid dreams and reflections.
Only a few days remain for a significant solo exhibition at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, California. All it takes is a quick glimpse of Latin American master Julio Valdez’s stunning paintings to forget all about water in its frozen, solid form.
On view through December 17, “Dreams and Reflections” (which takes its title from Carl Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections) is a remarkable display of Valdez’s ability to harness the phenomenon of refracted light with paint and brush. Completed over the past three years, “Dreams and Reflections” presents several of Valdez’s newest oils, which display a variety of figurative and narrative subjects immersed beneath the rippling surfaces of water. In addition to being visually compelling, the works “simultaneously reflect an inner world informed by the artist’s personal and collective history,” the gallery writes.
Continuing, “[The paintings] are inspired by Valdez’s varied travels, including a visit to the Celestún Biosphere Reserve in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Among the exhibition’s highlights is ‘Celestún II,’ depicting a diver submerged beside the anchor line of an unseen boat. The anchor line disappears into the ocean depths, far below the diver’s refracted image. The painting’s tensions resonate in the disappearing anchor line, the instability of the diver’s image and a sense of isolation and vulnerability reinforced by the unseen boat.”
To learn more, visit Bergamot Station.
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