Miguel Lopez Vazquez at Galeria Contempo

Galeria Contempo recently announced a reception for multi-talented artist Miguel Lopez Vazquez, to take place at the gallery on Friday, January 22, 6 – 10 pm.

Born in 1972, Lopez Vazquez  is a Mexican artist whose cultural roots can be found first in the city of Leon, Guanajuato  where he interrupted his studies in Architecture to study Graphic Design instead. During the years, Lopez Vazquez  has studied several expressional techniques using alternatively pencil drawing, acrylic ink on paper, wood and canvas. Presently, the representational technique mostly used by Lopez Vazquez is monotyping  and hand-painted acrylic and pastels on natural cotton paper and canvas.  This method gives a more modern touch to a type of artworks that already are known for expressing fresh and modern contents.

Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The image is then transferred onto a sheet of paper by pressing the two together, usually using a printing-press. Monotypes can also be created by inking an entire surface and then, using brushes or rags, removing ink to create a subtractive image, e.g. creating lights from a field of opaque colour. The inks used may be oil based or water based. With oil based inks, the paper may be dry, in which case the image has more contrast, or the paper may be damp, in which case the image has a 10 percent greater range of tones.

The abstraction of his motifs seems to sprout color like a fountain of light that shrouds the beholder even after leaving the room, gallery or museum. The visual and emotive memory of his work is a subtle trace of color and form that enriches the spectator like the aftertaste of a good wine, a fine chocolate, the aroma of a perfume. Reminiscences that fade but never disappear.