ANTONIO MURADO

Biomorphic and botanical forms dominate Murado’s work – with abstracted images of leaves, ice, flowers, twigs and clouds. Early works from 1990 - 91 show more literal renditions, including recognisable ‘still life’ images of buildings, furniture and trees. These soon gave way to a more modernist approach. The same subject matter is used for inspiration, but the works are reduced to the point of abstraction. “I have always thought that there is not much difference between the figurative and the abstract and I don’t think it’s very appropriate classification for painting. To me, everything is abstract and everything is figurative. My most recent paintings, particularly, are a mixture of these two things. The subject is abstract and the approach is figurative in the sense that it is not a representation of reality, rather it is a creation of reality. I have never had the urge to portray an image that has already been seen. In my work I try to carry out an investigation of virtual space.” (Antonio Murado, Tranatlantica, Mueso Alejandro Otero, Venezuela, 1995)

Murado’s resulting surfaces have a sensuality and lusciousness seen in the work of few others. Working primarily on canvas, he achieves this through a layering of paint, then a sanding down of its surface. Turpentine and diluted dyes are also used to create shadow-like traceries of intertwining layers. A new flatness is achieved to which he applies a glaze of varnish to give the works their trademark gloss. The resulting works are “…both opulent and austere.” (Dominique Nahas, “The Critical State of Visual Art in New York”, Art in America, November, 1997)

Alongside his works on canvas, Murado also produces a series of works on paper. Although these can be read as studies for larger works, they are nonetheless undeniably beautiful in their own right. “Murado’s works on paper - enthralling small oil paintings with glowing, matte, resinous surfaces - are (if one looks at them individually or in a row) of equally hypnotic power as the larger pieces. These, so to speak, sealed little treasures appear at first more tangible and more manageable for the eye. But also here dynamical lines, lush vines, and elusive pulsating structures drive towards the edges of the paper, as if they are flowing into larger cosmic cycles.” (Sabine Russ, Antonio Murado - paintings and works on paper, Lucas Schoormans Gallery, New York, 1998)

In 2002 Murado was the subject of a large survey exhibition at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, which was accompanied by a full colour catalogue. Works spanned from early paintings exhibited in his native Galicia, to large scale works produced specifically for the exhibition. In 2003 Murado travelled to New Zealand for the first time and took residence in a studio on Auckland’s West Coast at Anawhata. The works from Murado’s Anawhata series were inspired by the new rugged environment that surrounded him here - the water, the horizon line, the sunsets and the light itself. These are both elegant and haunting seascapes that capture a mood of isolation and the immense vastness of the landscape, reminiscent of works by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto and German painter Gerhard Richter. Comparisons can also be made to Colin McCahon’s paintings from his Kaipara Flats and Necessary Protection series all painted from his studio at Muriwai beach, further up the West Coast from Anawhata.

Text courtesy Gow Langsford Gallery.