F1 Art Sculptures

Jaime Gil Laffan. Lubbock, TX. I  describe my work as a Contemporary Abstract Expressionism with   constructivism and organic symbolism; mixed-media,(Silicone, resins,encaustic, polymers, oils add graphite) 

Painterly Abstraction 

Jaime Gil has never wavered in his commitment to subjective, technically rich, abstract gesturalism. His work is based on the pure exposition of sincere feeling that is, most of all, inspired by the act of painting itself. Viewing his paintings and paint-encrusted objects, one quickly appreciates a sense of oneness between the artist and the work. Ranging from broad rhythmic brushwork and congested space into white-ground openness activated by loose trellises of geometric constructions, Gils paintings are about the physical, plastic qualities of the paint itself, and the artists interaction with the materials. A true descendant of the Gestural/Action Painters of the New York School, Gil applies the tenets of Abstract Expressionism to his particular stylistic method, emphasizing the automatic and spontaneous tempered by his attraction to compositional organization unified by geometric forms. Through the use of objective abstraction focusing on circles and squares, he controls the restlessness of a multi-layered technique based on the ancient principles of the hot-wax painting medium called encaustic, Silicone and Resins for a more structured format. Gil creates both paintings and object-paintings. The works best described as object-paintings are the result of thick encrustations of different material and pigment that succeed in three dimensions as totemic or stele forms of great physicality that extend the two-dimensional description of painting into a category that is more sculpture or relief. His technique of multiple layers begins with the application of pigments varying in its transparency, followed by the thikness of materials also infused with color. The wax, silicone, reins and polymers provides both transparency and opacity; it may be a velvety smooth layer through which the color imagery appears or emerges, or the texture. This materials also forces the artist to work quickly and spontaneously, before it dries in formations often unanticipated or uncontrolled. The presence of geometric formations both beneath and on top of the surface is used to secure the compositional integrity of his imagery, especially in the works on canvas. The immediacy of his subconscious impulse is resolved into equilibrium through the repetition of forms and minimalist aesthetics that are in contradiction to the thickness of the final layer and its natural evolutions on the painterly surface. The play of technical and stylistic ambiguities present in the works of Jaime Gil gives the impression of colors hovering with a shallow field, as well as impenetrable depths of materials. However, despite these seemingly contradictory approaches to painting, Gil infuses his works with a quiet tranquility. Each one yields a purely chromatic image or images, based on the tenets of abstraction that refer to nothing but their own physical presence and the process by which they came into being. Carol DamianFlorida International UniversityMiami.