From March 29th to April 18th at the Chelsea gallery
In painting as in literature, the narrative thread that holds
a story together has become less linear in the postmodern era.
Like some of our best contemporary novelists, Otimcke, a painter
from Paraguay, finds new ways to narrate an inner reality in her
enigmatic figure paintings, on view at Agora Gallery, 415 West
Broadway, from March 29 through April 18, with a reception on
March 30, from 6 to 8 PM.
Acutely aware that we are living in an age when the old stories
of history, the bible, and classical mythology no longer hold
sway, Otimcke creates subjective myths for a new age. Working
in oil and acrylic on canvas in a style as clear and pristine
in its formal components as that of Will Barnet or Alex Katz,
albeit with a more imaginative dimension, Otimcke places her figures
in settings that are neither landscapes nor interiorsat least
not in the sense that we are used to thinking of either. Rather,
they are abstract environments beholden to the factual appearances
of neither. Nor are Otimcke's figures constrained by clothing
as they inhabit a realm where forms that are not quite trees and
not quite cruciforms, chromatically sparkling with a patchwork
spectrum of brilliant hues, sometimes serve as a backdrop for
their ideal nudity.
Such structures are especially prominent in pictures such as
"Alma Tuya...Alma Mia" and "Plegarias" where
they provide compositional ballast and also appear strongly symbolic.
In the former painting, a female nude that crouches under two
such shapes in a position of supplication over what appears to
be a white cloth partially covering a single rose. The prayerful
feeling is supplemented by an actual crucifix that dangles on
its chain from the larger structure. In the latter canvas, another
comely nude sits pensively in front of a single such shape, as
though meditating at the foot of a strangely festive cross.
By contrast, another painting called "Secretos" seems
to dwell on a sense of tension and distrust between two nudes
in one of Otimcke's fanciful invented landscapes. Although they
are seated in close proximity to each other they are obviously
poles apart, a scattering of rose petals further emphasizing their
estrangement.
Equally engaging in another manner, Otimcke's "Nostalgia"
centers on the seated figure of a classically proportioned nude,
seen in profile. The setting is more suggestive of an interior,
where a graceful red ribbon, draped over a low bar, dangles down
and is absently fondled by the young woman, as she supports her
head on her bare knees, deep in a daydream or rapt romantic reverie.
Like all of Otimcke's compositions, "Nostalgia" provokes
a wide range of intuitive responses that are open to subjective
interpretation, involving the viewer in a process by which the
painting can serve as a mirror of one¹s own inner states. Here,
however, the symbolic conflicts that enliven some of her other
canvases are hushed and suspended, as we are drawn into the serene
solitude of the beautiful dreamer.
Click
here to view the Latin Amercan Fine Art Exihbition catalog
From March 29th to April 18th at the Chelsea gallery
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