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What You Need to Know: On view through June 22, 2024, Lehmann Maupin is presenting the solo exhibition “Loriel Beltrán: To Name the Light” at their Cromwell Place, London, location. The show marks the artist’s debut in the city and features five new paintings that together emphasize Beltrán’s engagement with the many facets of time, including historical, linguistic, and geologic. A centerpiece of the exhibition is the large-scale Total Collapse (Miami/Seoul) (2024), comprised of latex paint on panel and bringing to the fore the complexities of the theme of time. Accompanying “To Name the Light” is a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue, which includes an essay by curator Katherine Rochester.

Loriel Beltrán, Total Collapse (Miami/Seoul) (2024). © Loriel Beltrán. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London and Central Fine, Miami Beach.

About the Artist: Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, and currently based in Miami, Florida, artist Loriel Beltrán (b. 1985) studied at the New World School of the Arts, and is recognized for his distinctive style that synthesizes elements of post-war American art and Latin American modernism. Employing a technique that leverages the material qualities of paint, his paintings contain a distinctive sculptural quality as they are built up in new and innovative ways—which he has cited Gego as an inspiration. Additional influences to his practice can be found in the way Lynda Benglis and Jackson Pollock poured paint, the use of color in the work of Mark Rothko, as well as the meticulous grids of Agnes Martin and leveraging of gravity and chance in the work of Robert Morris, to name just a few.

Loriel Beltrán, Black and White Marks (2024) © Loriel Beltrán. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London and Central Fine, Miami Beach.

Why We Like It: Within the five works on view at Lehmann Maupin, London, Beltrán’s commitment to process and material are brought center stage. His handling of paint and its application on his chosen support result in compositions that are both physically and visually textural and evoke a sense of discovery akin as built up layers offer glimpses to what is beneath. In paintings such as Black and White Marks (2024), the repeated yet varied lines of pigment overlap and zigzag, offering brief glimpses of other hues just beneath, revealed only after careful looking. From a distance, the black and white elements could be interpreted as geologic layers or visual static, calling forth Beltráns engagement with time and movement. Together, the show offers a nuanced look at the artist’s practice as well as the dynamic avenues of experimentation he continually adopts to find new ways of conveying the abstract.

Loriel Beltrán, Dark Path/Dark Past (2024). © Loriel Beltrán. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London and Central Fine, Miami Beach.

“Loriel Belrán: To Name the Light” is on view at Lehmann Maupin, London, through June 22, 2024.