MARCOS VALELLA @ DV

Series 5- Marcos Valella

MAY 14 - JUNE 25, 2011
RECEPTION MAY 14, 2011, 7 - 10 PM
Dimensions Variable
171 NE 38th Street, Design District, Miami, Florida 33137

When first looking at Marcos’ paintings they appear to be lazy and unresolved. There is a feeling of awkwardness and weirdness. The series of seven paintings made up of 32 to 34 inches square for Dimensions Variable, look bleached or erased in the center. There is no identifiable subject matter and they are all treated the same, without any hierarchy. However, upon closer inspection, they show variations of tonal values. The undertones are made out of several colors quite difficult to define because of the big white gesture of gesso covering them. The addition of white is almost certainly negating part of the image. The flat white that exists within the frame of the canvas is also echoed throughout the space, canceling the preponderance of any of the two.

I think he restrains himself from doing too much. In fact, he makes a painting in short time, as a result, creating a process which deliberately demystifies his work. You feel as though his paintings are the product of casualty. They roughly show a natural sense of coherence. At the same time they represent an untenable position and come across as a mobilization towards a different agency of understanding themselves. They convey an incompatibility with the sense of completeness; a dynamic dilemma of what was made and what ends up being.

Marcos’ paintings have an innate capacity of showing no fear of change. You feel vigorous near them. The works themselves look bold and adventurous. These paintings are simple and unconcerned. It is like he wants to remove the existence of the artist in his work. It navigates from system to system with a sense of acceptance. I guess if I could make total sense of what he does, I would probably find his work less interesting.

- Odalis Valdivieso

Marcos Valella lives and works in Miami. He received a Masters of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from Florida International University, Miami, FL. He is the recipient of Here and There, Bass Museum of Art Grant and Mildred Pelzer Lynch Fellowship. Marcos Valella’s work is included in numerous public and private collections and has been featured in such exhibitions as Series 4, Gallery Diet, Miami, FL, New Work Miami, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, Paintings and Palettes, Farside Gallery, Miami, FL, Present, Centro Cultural Español, Miami, FL, Painting’s Edge, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, TIME+TEMP: Surveying of the Shifting Climate of Current Painting in South Florida, Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL, To be here, 801 Projects, Miami, FL, Identifying Heart, ABW Gallery, Iowa City, IA, The Group Show, Parks Exhibition Center, Idyllwild, CA, and Pause, Blackbird Space, San Francisco, CA.

About Dimensions Variable

Dimensions Variable is an exhibition space in the Miami Design District interested in innovative new projects. Our intent is to feature exhibitions by individual artists and collaboratives. Rather than showcasing group or solo exhibitions in the usual format, we are interested in exhibitions that address our space specifically and produce one cohesive project. Dimensions Variable aspires to provide a forum for the introduction of unfamiliar, complex, collaborative and multidisciplinary practices to a Miami audience. Dimensions Variable is currently run jointly by Adler Guerrier, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova and Frances Trombly.

Dimensions Variable
171 NE 38th Street, Design District, Miami, Florida 33137, United States
+1 305 607 5527 / dv@dimensionsvariable.net / www.dimensionsvariable.net