Armando Barrios Tribute. 2017. Oil on wood. 60cmx60cm
We are surprised by a tribute to the great Venezuelan artist Armando Barrios. We are reminded of the figures of the “3 Graces“, but here are two young women who are very well dressed and are accompanied by a mandolin, symbol of the Soul, against the light of a window, where there is a city image in the background, but they revel so much with their music, that we can imagine that they forgot their obligations, as if there were nothing important out there in those buildings. For them, there is always that infinite present; Joseandrés feels a debt to this Venezuelan artist, because like Barrios, he is also a musician by profession, his instrument is the first instrument that man discovered: the voice, our artist has performed several times as a soloist or accompanied. At the level of color their dresses play with unresolved chromatisms according to the artist.
Bathers. 2017. Oil on Linen. 50cmx60cm
Of a very Japanese subtlety, their umbrellas with an almost oriental calligraphic language and their textures, as in the paintings by Edgar Sánchez, are not only a great visual feast but also cause the observer to want to eat the painting. Two young girls appear with an oriental beauty, sitting on the shore of the beach, contemplating the sea. Joseandrés here reminds us of the post-impressionists, who were inspired by the exotic of the Polynesian islands or of distant lands of Oceania as Gauiguin did. They are there, sitting contemplating, as a "simple pleasure" but sometimes the simple becomes difficult in a life as busy as the one we endure. We do not know if there is a big feast of food in that bamboo trunk or if there are only poetry books from the Far East.
Caribbean love. 2018. Oil on Linen. 50cmx60cm
A relaxed couple enjoys the Caribbean sun where there is also a flamenco, a symbol of the feminine, that makes an analogy with the dress of the woman. There, the pleasure of water, sun and resting, make a good combination with colors and light. The artist takes more liberties in the use of textures, making an analogy also with the carefree tone of the placid man, protagonist of the painting.
Contemplative. 2018. Oil and Acrylic on Linen. 50cmx120cm
"Contemplative” is inspired by a photograph that a deceased friend of the artist gave to him as a present. There we see a boy contemplating his town from his small ship. It is a work of landscape beauty that describes the Venezuelan marine places. The child here seems to give thanks to the Creator for such a beautiful gift every day is. Here Joseandrés synthesizes everything he knows, his figurative technique, his landscape technique, the architecture of the village in the background and the psychology applied to his models.
Love triangle. 2017. Oil on Linen. 50cmx60cm
It appears as the first protagonist a young man with a beard, in second place, a beautiful young woman and in the background a third protagonist, that we do not know if in fact it is that first protagonist but in another time, or distorted. Joseandrés brings us through this triangle to the psychology of the models, in the emotions of the moment, as did the Chilean Claudio Bravo, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
Luminous Lovers. 2017. Oil and Acrylic on Linen. 50cmx60cm
"Amores Luminosos" (Luminous Lovers) goes beyond all the works we have appreciated. Now the artist feels more sure of recreating both the symbolic and the psychological realm, he plays at being a pragmatist of art, and why not, also with the kinesthetic. We can feel the work, and also smell it: a couple against light, a pensive man with a yellow rose, who could recreate a scene before or after a sexual encounter, but in which the man, despite having all the Pleasures at his fingertips, makes us think that he feels depressed through his lost gaze.
Melomana. 2017. Oil and Acrylic on Linen. 50cmx60cm
Tanned woman in a swimsuit that is on a vintage piece of furniture, but her pleasure is not only lying down but also delights herself listening to music through vinyl records with an 80’s turntable... more than a pleasure, It is an eccentricity in the XXI century. Here the artist feels freer with his technique as he himself affirms: "with the spatula I feel more freedom than I do with the brush" here we are no longer surprised that music appears again as simple pleasure.
Solar. 2017. Oil and Acrylic on Linen. 50cmx120cm
A young brunette woman tanning her body while sitting on a chair, besides enjoying the sun bath, she also contemplates the remoteness of the sea. We return to the work of Gauguin, his women from Tahiti remind us of what our artist wants to express. Here the architecture appears, where Joseandrés is also a professional, since he also graduated in the "petrified music" as Goethe called Architecture. The bright white walls symbolizes Purity, a virtue the artist idealizes.
Tender Lovers. 2017. Oil and Acrylic on Linen. 50cmx60cm
For clousure, the artist wanted to do it as at the beginning, with another hug: "Tender Lovers”. This time, more brutal and painful than the first painting, both the face of the woman and the man remain hidden, only in their bodies and the back of the beloved, there is a rose as a symbol of love that is pleasant but also has thorns. Here he makes a great use of textures, and with much greater scope than the previous works, that is, a colorful and playable texture, especially in the woman's hair.
Urban Lovers. 2017. Oil on Linen. 50cmx60cm
An emotional farewell, in a place of any city in the world, transports us to that full moment where a couple gives a hug, that describes us that they have to separate for some kind of circumstance, either for political reasons or because it simply did not work . There, the artist plays with his splendid technique of spatula, where there is a background of blues, which denote that lost city where one of the two will arrive again but alone, there, where we only see a loneliness that Joseandrés describes, as "an experience that I have lived in my own flesh".
