On View
Gallery Hopping: Richly-Hued Tropicália by Sol Calero at Laura Bartlett Gallery
A visual treat of colors, politics, and autobiography.
Skye Arundhati Thomas
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Venezuelan artist Sol Calero brings together elements of play and personal politics in a colorful new series of paintings at the Laura Bartlett Gallery, titled, “Solo Pintura” (Only Painting). With new works of a familiar style—and yet with remarkable new additions—as always, Calero’s autobiography is ever-present in the space.
Bursting to the surface of the canvas, colorful and restrained only by the painterly hand are a series of exotic motifs; the tropicália of richly hued fruits and plants. But here, Calero also engages with breaking up the painterly surface, a new technique in her work. She does so with the addition of small mosaics onto the canvas, or fragmented narratives torn up by lines that cut through the work, and through a highly stylized painted framing.
Pictorial devices mimic tiled floors, wallpapers, blinds and vases—creating a scene of both the interior and the exterior upon the same surface. Embracing the language of kitsch, Calero continues to investigate identity construction and issues of nationality and conviviality, themes that have remained central to her work.
Sol Calero, “Solo Pintura” is on view at Laura Bartlett Gallery, London from September 23 -November 13.
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