Opening reception October 26, 6 to 8 PM
From October 21st through November 10th at the Chelsea Gallery.

This fall the Agora Gallery offers a unique assortment of works that conveys of the energy and vitality of Latin America. The artists responsible for these paintings, hailing from Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico, incorporate a regional spirit into their art. These beautiful creations—some minimalist and conceptual, others symbolic and narrative, and all vibrant and refreshing—feature in “Masters of the Imagination: The Latin American Fine Art Exhibition.”

Color, brilliant and distinct, plays a significant role in the exhibition and is especially apparent in the abstract expressionist works of Jose Maria Casas, Renate Neumann, Claudia Parodi, Maria Claudia Puche, and Xavier Yarto. While these artists tend to work with non-objective geometric forms, Raul Martinez offers emotive and nearly life-like representations of the human body. Other artists such as Nicolas Gracey, Ana Maria Hoyos, Pablo Kontos, and Mauricio Toulumsis rely on more figurative elements, often colorful and bold, to enliven their compositions. Overflowing with fanciful and mythological symbolism, the resulting works are surrealist in nature, referencing the rich history of magical realism associated with Latin America. Overall, this exhibition presents a collection of the most exciting art Latin America offers today.

The Peruvian artist Nicolas Gracey, working with an earth-toned palate, combines human figures and symbolic elements to create narrative compositions that address basic struggles involving faith, loss, and redemption.

Similar themes of struggle pervade the life-like paintings of Raul Martinez, who works in black and white as well as color to depict individuals in various states such as thinking, relaxing, and falling. In general, his works appear simultaneously realist—almost photographically so—and ephemeral, as if the image itself were only a dream.

The work of the Mexican artist Mauricio Toulumsis can also be described as dream-like, but in a surrealist sense. Using brilliant color he creates compositions in which reality and imagination meld seamlessly, offering quasi-mythological and empowering portrayals of women.

Ana Maria Hoyos, a native of Columbia, often includes in her paintings the visage of men and women. Yet, these images, reflected upon everyday objects such as picture frames and boat houses, or feathered into wispy abstracted natural elements, appear almost as visions in their surrealist landscape.

The Argentinean artist Pablo Kontos appears to draw on a deep and primitive source to create works of bold color and form that appear simultaneously playful and direct in the recreation of human activities.

Color and form are also integral to the work of Renate Neumann, a native of Chile whose stylized depictions of nature, urban landscapes, and people enliven her abstracted scenes. In these paintings, vibrant tones combine with both straight and curvilinear shapes to emanate an air of festivity.

The strong geometries of Maria Claudia Puche's art call to mind the work of De Stijl masters, rendered in multiple shades that span the color spectrum. While her creations are largely abstract, Puche occasionally introduces human figures that, in their flowing profiles, draw attention to the hard, straight edges that dominate her compositions.

The non-objective paintings of the Chilean artist Claudia Parodi rank among the most abstract of the exhibition. She employs color, sometimes muted and other times bold, to create intriguing images modeled by texture and depth.

Xavier Yarto also produces work best described as abstract, yet he relies upon the layering of color and line to create compositions that resonate with both vivid and shadowy color, evocative of the intense sunlight characteristic of his native Mexico.

The work of Jose Maria Casas similarly abounds with bright color. With brush strokes alternating between smooth and wispy, this Argentinean artist often juxtaposes strong, definitive forms against a stark light-toned background to compose non-representational images that are both cheerful and thought-provoking.

Click here to see the exhibition catalog

Opening reception October 26, 6 to 8 PM
From October 21st through November 10th at the Chelsea Gallery.