| Somewhere between the shrouded depths of color and mended layers of texture lies the expression of energy, freed from rational control, and yet still clinging to the outline of a simple object. Automatic drawing and action painting developed by the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionist movements were in essence, journeys into the chaotic subconscious and the distinct characteristics of human behavior unbound. The work was not about deliberate strokes and rational choices, but rather about a process in which the very action of making art became paramount in the visual dialogue it encouraged. |
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Somewhere between the shrouded depths of color and mended layers of texture lies the expression of energy, freed from rational control, and yet still clinging to the outline of a simple object. Automatic drawing and action painting developed by the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionist movements were in essence, journeys into the chaotic subconscious and the distinct characteristics of human behavior unbound. The work was not about deliberate strokes and rational choices, but rather about a process in which the very action of making art became paramount in the visual dialogue it encouraged.
Leaving his traces, Nacho Murillo, brings both the physics of automatic drawing, collage, and an action painting method to the canvas without preconceived notions. His intentions are shown through his illusionist approach to portraying the simple objects that surround daily life. Bold colors abound, undiluted saturated acrylic, paired with floral fabrics of both simple cotton and silk speak of action, cutting, sewing, and crude single strokes of paint and charcoal.
Inspired by movement and form, the drawings and collages of Nacho Murillo exude the ecstatic energy of life. Using bright, saturated colors, rich textures, and a freehanded approach his vibrant mixed-media collages; his works deposit an electric charge to any gallery space. A series of his mixed-media collages were created site-specifically during his stay in NYC, and were on show at the Broadway Gallery from October 1 through 15. Some of his previous works, created for the Artist-In-Residency show at NY Arts Beijing, were included due to their continuity.
His latest work, in which the cup is animated into a sort of ecstatic state, explored ideas form and variation of a continuous theme, as in A Slip and 473 Broadway. The cup to him is symbolic of the cup of life, a single cup that holds all that can be consumed and taken into his full being. He takes the refuse and small charms alike, piecemeal, from city streets and daily activities as inspiration for his collages.
Other elements that take form in his work, such as trees or shoes, at a glance seem to have unintentionally resulted from such an energetically charged collage process. In Blue Suede Shoes, Murillo delivers the loose sketch of a sneaker across a quilted canvas of brightly woven print fabrics. The shoe introduces an element of the absurd in that it is so large and overly simplified, yet feels rich with luscious patterned fabrics in the background. It is vibrant and yet slightly ridiculous, echoing the song after which it is named.
When looking at his work the very trace of his aggressive stroke gives off the uncanny impression that Murillo’s intuitive sense of color and composition accommodate the rapid spawning of his completed canvases. His spontaneous methods carry out into his own life where collects tidbits, he uses vibrant colors and fabrics taken from old clothes or beautifully woven found fabrics. His personality is as sparkling and energetic as his work, he works hard and intensely to create incorporate many exciting lines, forms, prints, and textures. Working mostly at night, he combines materials together across large sections of raw, unbound canvas that will be nailed to the gallery wall before final strokes and elements are applied.
Once again the excitement of gesture is raised, as the act of painting and the application of paint to canvas is presented undisguised to the viewer’s eye. He worked up to the very day of his opening at New York’s Broadway Gallery in October, adding new splashes and drips of paint at night, leaving bright jars of acrylic open on the floor absent mindedly, and finally, letting charcoal lines extend out beyond the canvas onto the very walls that carried them.
The work was never an object that came from an artist’s studio, rather work that had been made in the gallery it would be shown in, open to the public’s eyes throughout the inception and creation process. Having spent the past three months in both Beijing and New York as an artist in residence, Murillo brings new meaning to the term. 473 Broadway was named for the place of its inception, The Broadway Gallery and exudes the specific memories that he experienced during his time in residency.
Murillo, who hails from Valencia, Spain comes from a family of doctors and is in fact medically licensed also. However, after diverting his energies to painting long ago, Murillo conceits that painting, “is a very dangerous profession.” The fervor and heat of his pieces reflect the vehemence of a very rare breed of artists, successfully communicating the passion he puts into his life’s work.
On February 20th, his new body of 20 paintings, including two from his time in New York and in Beijing, will be opening at Valencia’s Balau Museum. Continuing to explore the act of making art, site specifically, through traveling Murillo will spend the spring of 2008 at an artist residency in Panama.
