Ghostprint Gallery’s grand reopening on September 10th in Scott’s Addition will open with internationally known classical-contemporary artist Juan Perdiguero
Ghostprint Gallery’s grand reopening on September 10th in Scott’s Addition will open with internationally known classical-contemporary artist Juan Perdiguero, and his most recent series, “Birds.”
This will be Perdiguero’s second time he’s helped open a gallery, and third series with Ghostprint Gallery.
Classically trained in Madrid, Spain, Juan Perdiguero brings a worldliness in his art. He creates a sort of poetica that dances between a masculine modernism and staple tradition through realistic figuration drawing on photo paper.
Having focused primarily on the figuration of dogs and their intersection of human psyche and animal emotion with “Perros Indalo” and “Perros Negros” at Ghostprint, Perdiguero makes a shift towards the beauty of predatory birds this time around in his exhibition.
“The images of the dogs in the past shows provided a metaphor for human emotion.” Artist Juan Perdiguero said. “In “Birds”, however, I primarily focus on the idea of the human in motion.”
Working with the dark elements of predatory and scavenger birds, Perdiguero’s traditional Spanish Baroque style focuses on the restlessness of his own world and its mediation with the contemporary strangeness of the black-and-white world in which we live.
“There is a sort of mystery and lightness in the space in which each abstract bird demonstrates flight,” Perdiguero said. “One cannot see the psychology of the birds through their eyes, but with their weightlessness in the space in which they move, there’s a motion; an existential quality.”
Perdiguero’s technique displays a kind of realism that is often mistaken as hyperrealism, though he stresses it is “merely realism through filters of personal reality.”
Using photo paper in a darkroom, Perdiguero works with stains and textures on photo paper as background elements for his pieces. This part of the process allows a contemporary element to play in with his free-hand classical skills in which he uses his fingertips to layer and shade ink in which he draws from light–a 19th century approach.
This invented technique establishes Perdiguero’s distinct style in which he embraces academic tradition but in a contemporary manner.
Juan Perdiguero will exhibit “Birds” at Ghostprint Gallery’s relocated space in Scott’s Addition. This exhibit will open along with Ghostprint Gallery’s grand reopening September 10th from 6 to 10pm. The exhibit will run until the end of October.
