Edgar Martinez & Boback Emad open at Galleria Dante
Friday, January 13, at 6pm t 10 pm.
Edgar Martinez born in Toluca, Mexico came to Vallarta at the age of 6. He only left once to study art for 5 years in Guadalajara.
He feels inspired and influenced by the great masters, but has worked diligently to create his own style, compositions and perspective through his study of their masterpieces. He considers himself a surrealist with a basis in the classics. .jpg)
There is a richness to his paintings that makes one ask if he was trained in Europe. Edgar also draws from his Mexican culture to create the subjects in his paintings, often depicting bull fighters or bulls, or village scenes, street scenes, horses.
His continues to work in a medium of marble powder mixed with oil, painstakingly layered to create textures that leave the viewer wanting to see more. He feels the technique allows him to express himself more as an "expressionist than a realist".
Light is crucial in his work and he feels the layers give his paintings life. In his recurring theme of the circus, he sees it as a reflection of daily life. Symbols like the horse refer to strength. The people have a more symbolic form, sometimes exaggerated.
There is a strength transmitted by the textures in the human figures or in the tones of his main colors: ochre, red and blue. One thing for sure, Edgar's confidence and his discipline in his own works never fails to surprise us and always leaves us wanting to see more.
Boback Emad, will have his first Central American show in three years. The show entitled "Symbols: A Sculptural Language" was inspired by the artist's recent experiences in France. Influenced by the intimacy of Parisian living, Emad began exploring the unexpected connection between the symbolism of geometry and humanity. .jpg)
For the first time Emad will be hanging his paintings and ink drawings to illustrate the "conversation" between his two-dimensional and three-dimensional works.
Born in Ohio but a resident of the world, Boback divides his time between his primary studio in Northern CA and his European atelier in Paris, France. His career spans 25 years and his works, some of which are monumental, are displayed in private and public collections.
The artist has installed major public sculptures throughout the United States and Mexico. His most recent installation in October, 2010, stands in the city of Cloverdale, California, and is the first monument in his series of "Memory Markers."
His work can also be seen in Seattle, Washington at the Bill and Melinda Gates Children's Hospital, at Montgomery Park in Portland, Oregon, at downtown Loveland, Colorado, and in the city of Santa Rosa, California. "This year, while in Paris, I started working with stone. I love that a stone can sometimes look like a person or have humanistic qualities. It's unexpected.
I have been inspired by this unexpectedness. My recent pieces have come about as a result of my attempt to work smaller and capture the unexpected connection between geometry and humanity, finding the warmth and softness in metal and stone.
I have attempted to connect the two and bring them together in my new work, blurring the line between the humanity in stone and the symbols in steel."