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Juan Uslé, Manthis de Altura,
2010-11
vinyl, dispersion and dry pigment on canvas
108
x 80 in 274.3 x 203.2 cm
Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New
York
Juan Uslé: Desplazado
(Displaced)
31 Mar
2011 to 7 May 2011
Cheim & Read is pleased to
announce "Desplazado" - an exhibition of recent
paintings by Spanish artist Juan Uslé. Uslé has been showing
with Cheim & Read since 1997; his last exhibition with the
gallery was in 2008.
Uslé's abstractions are evocative of the colors, light
and space of his Northern Spanish homeland and the density,
energy and unpredictability of New York City. Born in
Santander, Spain, in 1954, Uslé studied art in Valencia and
moved to New York in the late 1980s; he had his first solo
show in 1988. He now spends time between the city and
Cantabria, Spain, near his boyhood home. Both places provide
Uslé with a feeling of "displacement" - an important theme for
his work. As he says: "I've always felt something strange,
'displaced,' in the various places I've lived. When we would
go to my grandparents' town, I would watch the other children
of my age and wonder: why do we - my family and me - not live
there too?" Later, in New York, Uslé felt a similar sensation,
which was perpetuated as he "stumbled from place to place."
Despite many moves, and having studios in several locations,
the feeling followed: "We are not of a specific place; rather
we are/belong to them all."
The
transitory nature of New York City and its unique neurosis has
been particularly adept at fostering Uslé's feelings of
dislocation and fragmentation; the visual contradictions found
in his work echo his feelings about the city: "I like and
disdain New York. I always thought it was a 'threshold,' open
to many other places, situations and possibilities. And over
the years I'm still here for much of the time, continuing to
feel the same anxiety, 'displacement' and mismatch that I have
had since my childhood. This feeling is fundamental for my
work. It nourishes it and keeps it hungry. It encourages me to
be curious, to investigate new possibilities and territories,
both in life and in the pictorial."
Known
for paintings constructed with translucent layers of saturated
color, Uslé's work is defined by the dynamism inherent to
opposites - they are at once organic and geometric, ethereal
and solid. The emergence of the unexpected from organized
compositional elements provides his paintings with a sense of
surprise, while his working process (he uses several old
master techniques) plants them firmly in tradition. Mixing
intensely colored pigments, vinyl, and dispersion on canvas,
Uslé exploits the duality inherent to paint - he is fascinated
by the fleshy physicality of its pure form and its ability to
transform, when applied, into transparent, illusory surfaces.
For Uslé, the act of painting is an act of exploration of the
unknown. His work, while citing the conceptual theories of
painting itself, connects, through process, to a more
universal experience.
Uslé's paintings are sometimes referred to as inviting,
even "warm" - they urge the viewer to look closely, to
visually untangle the layers of line and color and experience
the way in which the painting was made. In the current show at
Cheim & Read, several works are apt examples:
Solitaires, 2011, Landropo, 2010-11, and
Think Twice, 2010-11, have wide brushstrokes which
dominate the compostion; Unfolding Manthis, 2010 and
Fagocimanthis, 2010, present central motifs backed by
dense, light-filled checkerboards of undulating color.
Radiating lapis blue is interrupted with shards of turquoise
in Inclinado (Nikritin), 2010. Veils of muted hues
are punctuated by bright color in Desplazado, 2010, a
small painting which gives the show its name. All convey the
sense of Usle's continuous searching: "I've had fun, worked
hard and discovered the world, but I've never felt the whole
sense of a place. Maybe that is what I look for."
Uslé
has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Es
Baluard, Museu d'Art Modern I Contemporani de Palma, Palma de
Mallorca, Palma de Mallorca, Spain in 2010, the Centro de Arte
Contemporáneo Málaga in 2007, SMAK, Ghent, and the Irish
Museum of Modern Art in 2004, the Museo Nacional Centro de
Arte Reina Sofia in 2003, and the Instituto Valenciano de Arte
Moderno in 1996. He was also included in the 2005 Venice
Biennale, Documenta IX, the 1992 Istanbul Biennial and the1985
Bienal de Sao Paulo.
CHEIM & READ
547
West 25th Street
New
York, NY 10001
T: +1
212 242 7727
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