Big Pictures Los Angeles is pleased to announce Order of Sorcery, an exhibition of new paintings by Aramis Gutierrez. An opening reception will be held on April 4th from 5:00pm until 9:00pm.
The word Sorcery is derived from Latin term Maleficium, which was associated with harmful magic like poisoning, necromancy and illusions. So it comes as no surprise that in our modern times the notion of sorcery conjures up suspect affiliations. This semantic is reinforced in contemporary personifications of Sorcerers and Sorceress like Sauron, Saruman and Maleficent who, contextualized by the genre of “historical” cinema, imply inordinate doom or the corruption of those whose who are undisclosed.
“We’re living like skeletons, because we’re feeling like skeletons”
-The Sound.
Revisionist tropes have recently dominated the conversation surrounding the practice of contemporary painting. Aramis Gutierrez’s new cycle of paintings consisting of images of sorcerers and sorceresses proposes a critical stance against the outsider market forces, decentralized decision-making and ambivalence that dominate the simulacra of aesthetics like specters. This posture is advanced through untimely, and possibly inappropriate, “painterly magic” joined with imagery derived from disjointed cinematic stills, to generate a generous quandary of abstraction by means of no inherent narrative and with the intent of facilitating the experiential of sorcerer and apprentice.
Aramis Gutierrez (b. 1975) has exhibited internationally with solo exhibitions at David Castillo Gallery, Legal Art (now Cannonball) and most recently Spinello Projects. He has been included in group exhibitions at the Perez Art Museum, the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood and the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. In 2008-2009 he was awarded the Studio Residency Program at the Deering Estate at Cutler. He co-founded Guccivuitton an artist gallery/group in 2013 in Miami, FL.
Press on show
Miami Rail Review by Cara Despain
