photo: anne sophie demare
Juan Avila (1977) was born in Colombia
He moved to the United States in the 90's
He currently lives and works in Ghent, Belgium.
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Most of my work starts from the observation and reinterpretation of nature and my surroundings.
I aim to create a mental, and physical space where I explore time, memory, emotions , materiality and the imaginary; The canvas becomes a ludic scenario where anything is possible.
I am interested in the process of indeterminacy in painting, the exploration of pure color and its expressive properties.
My work is focused in the tension between
substance and phenomenon, between essence and appearance ; painting is always a process of starting over.
These paintings and drawings are based on the exploration of a pulse in my unconscious mind.
A rhythmic beat transformed into inner and outer images. I delve in this duality to bridge a dialogue between this two worlds and a visualization of my own aesthetic emerges. The finished work is not a concrete idea but the outcome of a process;
I want to make painting relevant as an act.
Juan Avila
In the sea of consciousness one passes through infinite passages that do not respond to space or time. They are experienced as existences in themselves, alternating at the pulse of absolutely autonomous logics, where the outside has no jurisdiction. Oceans and mountains can change position and what in the outside world is known as up and down, in this vast universe they mean nothing. The truth is that if it were not for that wonderful discipline called Art, we would not have an idea of what that world is like. Perhaps this is the best tool to explore how unknown and perishable each moment of inner reality is. Because we live in that ambivalence 24 hours a day and 99% of those moments pass between our eyes like waterfalls. Art and only The will be the small jar that we will have to capture something from that vast spring. Thus, today we appreciate these paintings that, like psychic photograms, are presented to us as heirs of the tradition of the arts and the fatigue of those who live and share it.
Juan Avila was born in a warm and jungle place, full of natural borders that told him how small he was; There, you cannot ignore the mountains or ignore the river or the jungle. Life is woven together with death, the sky screams multicolored birds and the earth is eaten with each footstep. Even though Juan has lived his childhood alone in that lost paradise of South America, to go to the northern lands, where the giants live, still, and also for that reason, the center of his consciousness is furrowed by inks, smells and temperatures that He would never experience it again, but it is nevertheless engraved in the matrices of his consciousness. When he paints himself, not only the color or the shapes should be considered as route signs, all the senses must be taken into account. Because I highly doubt that there is or exists any painter who is only satisfied with the formal appearances of the work. Sometimes you want to paint a smell or a sound, it is not always the eye that is the most important, the main protagonist; Many times he is just an accomplice, a poorly paid employee who must by decree law fulfill his functions even at the risk of failing in his anonymity. When the painter enters these unknown lands, only He is the one who experiences them best, preserving a naive illusion that otherness can be experienced together with Him. Therefore, every time we face a work of art, we face a adventure, what an invitation of silence tinged with ancient echoes, which, because it belongs to all of us, is only one's and is perceived as a brief intimacy. Thus, an honest artist knows that arguing is deceiving himself, recognizing in silence and contemplation, delusional accomplices.
Edgar del Canto
Artist
In the sea of consciousness one passes through infinite passages that do not respond to space or time. They are experienced as existences in themselves, alternating at the pulse of absolutely autonomous logics, where the outside has no jurisdiction. Oceans and mountains can change position and what in the outside world is known as up and down, in this vast universe they mean nothing. The truth is that if it were not for that wonderful discipline called Art, we would not have an idea of what that world is like. Perhaps this is the best tool to explore how unknown and perishable each moment of inner reality is. Because we live in that ambivalence 24 hours a day and 99% of those moments pass between our eyes like waterfalls. Art and only The will be the small jar that we will have to capture something from that vast spring. Thus, today we appreciate these paintings that, like psychic photograms, are presented to us as heirs of the tradition of the arts and the fatigue of those who live and share it.
Juan Avila was born in a warm and jungle place, full of natural borders that told him how small he was; There, you cannot ignore the mountains or ignore the river or the jungle. Life is woven together with death, the sky screams multicolored birds and the earth is eaten with each footstep.
Juan Avila was born in a warm and jungle place, full of natural borders that told him how small he was; There, you cannot ignore the mountains or ignore the river or the jungle. Life is woven together with death, the sky screams multicolored birds and the earth is eaten with each footstep.
Even though Juan has lived his childhood alone in that lost paradise of South America, to go to the northern lands, where the giants live, still, and also for that reason, the center of his consciousness is furrowed by inks, smells and temperatures that He would never experience it again, but it is nevertheless engraved in the matrices of his consciousness. When he paints himself, not only the color or the shapes should be considered as route signs, all the senses must be taken into account. Because I highly doubt that there is or exists any painter who is only satisfied with the formal appearances of the work. Sometimes you want to paint a smell or a sound, it is not always the eye that is the most important, the main protagonist; Many times he is just an accomplice, a poorly paid employee who must by decree law fulfill his functions even at the risk of failing in his anonymity. When the painter enters these unknown lands, only He is the one who experiences them best, preserving a naive illusion that otherness can be experienced together with Him. Therefore, every time we face a work of art, we face a adventure, what an invitation of silence tinged with ancient echoes, which, because it belongs to all of us, is only one's and is perceived as a brief intimacy. Thus, an honest artist knows that arguing is deceiving himself, recognizing in silence and contemplation, delusional accomplices.
Edgar del Canto
Artist
Edgar del Canto
Artist