CUATES

DANIELA ELBAHARA presents “CUATES”, a group exhibition by the Mexican painter Sofía Ortiz and the multidisciplinary American artist, Brendan Fagan.

The name of the exhibition refers to the close relationship that exists between the artists, who even without sharing kinship have a connection.

Sofía Ortiz (Mexico City, 1988), a graduate of RISD and Yale universities, and Brendan Fagan (Portsmouth, Virginia, 1978), well-known in the New York art scene, became friends sharing a studio in Mexico City. As they parted ways, they continued to hang out and reflect on their work. Their meeting point was drawing, the predominant use of blue and organic forms.

Ortiz y Fagen’s work shares an interest in nature’s ability to dominate, inspire, and terrify. His drawings show “the dissonance between reality and perception”. That is to say: what we see is not the observable world, but a more faithful representation of what they perceive from their personal perspectives.

In this exhibition both artists produced new work. Fagan uses a different canvas: denim. First he draws on it with chlorine and then paints with oil, producing textures similar to chemical reactions. In his work, plants and body parts constantly change size, altering our understanding of the environment and its components as a psychedelic experience.

Ortiz makes landscapes in watercolor and Chinese ink on paper. The size of the format used is large or small, also pointing to the importance of observing the general or the detail. The artist likes to observe nature, and Fagen likes to observe himself and others. Both share a feeling of outsiders but are capable of connecting with the sublime.