Monday, October 22, 2007

Artist of the Week: David Gremard Romero

This week's artist is David Gremard Romero, who I recently discovered. Instead of introducing him to you myself, I let the artist speak to you through his own artist statement.
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The central preoccupation unifying all my work is an engagement with the practice of the old masters, particularly those of the Baroque and Rococo periods. Their perfection of craft, their exploration of narrative modes, and their explicit connection to history and politics are a source of continuing fascination and inspiration to my work. Embedding contemporary iconography and themes in a classical figurative craft, I seek to tease out the hidden relationships and continuities between classical art and current culture. As a gay, Catholic, Mexican-American artist, the complex themes of race, sexuality, subjectivity and identity find themselves entwined within the baroque parade of Mexican wrestlers, mythic hermaphrodites, imagined superheroes, and beastly cherubs that populate my imagination, my drawings, and my paintings. -David Gremard Romero-
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You can find more David Gremard Romero paintings and other info at: http://www.gremardromero.com/home.html
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2 comments:

Remixgal said...

Kimmo,
these are very interesting! Are the poses of the "face" ones supposed to look like they are all reaching climax?
If this is so, which I assume it is, this is my idea of erotica. This is what sex and sexy is to me. I love the fact that only the face is shown with expression, no body or body parts or no nudity and your mind is left to wander and make-up the rest of what is going on. This is very sensual to me.

Speaking of that,I think that if Madonna had used more of that approach for her Sex book it would have been more erotic. You know I am a huge fan and collect most of her work. And we discussed before how mostly unsexual the images were. I mean at least to me they were. I think alot of people off the street could have come up with better shots and scenes than what the book had to offer.

Okay that being said, the only pic I do not like is the one with man carrying the axe. Sorry- that has horror movie written all over it. If I was man and exposed and this guy came around me with an axe, I would be long gone. To me I cannot equate anything sexual or erotic with a penis and an axe in the same surrounding. Sorry if I am being harsh here, maybe I didn't get it.

Hugs to You

kimmo_matias said...

Haha. Yup, the axe man isn't my idea of sexual or erotic either. The portraits have been made this way: when interviewed, the models have decribed what kind of "superhero" or similar they would like to be portrayed as. So I guess one of them wanted to be a lumberjack (I hope the word is correct now)! The paintings with facial expressions are called "Little Deaths" and you are correct, it is describing the climax. I found both the portraits and the "little deaths" interesting, so glad you enjoyed them!