MANOLO BALLESTEROS

A stroke is the evidence of the hand of the artist, a mark of a physical movement made over the surface of a painting and, that together, compose the whole of an artwork. This mark-making process is now a key factor for Manolo’s artistic practice that, from a very personal search -now in the maturity of his career- wanted a change of narrative and was seeking light. The light of the materials and how depending on the use of the brushstroke, they linger and interact with the surface to create a visually textured pattern. Rendering a sort of weft of color, superimposed, mixed and disorganized, almost as life itself.

Manolo Ballesteros (Barcelona, 1965) oeuvre is intuitive, spontaneous and without an implicit message, his creation speaks for itself. In recent Ballesteros has experimented in the field of abstraction, playing with geometric complexity through the uniformity of pigments and the reduction of profiles. As a result of these investigations, his most recent work reflects the convergence of rounded shapes on a monochromatic background where the viewer is immersed in an energetic and dynamic art.

Materials are for the artist a key aspect in his creative process, focusing on the materials such as paper, steel, enamel and other that allow to artist to meditate purely on the forms and how they are affected by colors. Using bold tones or pastel palettes, Ballestero’s work is easy recognisable and pure.