SOLO SHOW, GUILLERMO MUÑOZ VERA

Carina Gallegos

           It is inevitable that the mind should be deceived by the eyes: what appear to be large-scale photographs are, in fact, Guillermo Muñoz Vera’s paintings. Upon close study, however, one realizes the lack of details in the enormous landscapes. Artists who choose realism, hyper-realism, or photo-realism as their style in painting risk having their work underrated as lacking creativity. Nevertheless, those few who succeed in capturing real life within the bounds of a canvas find themselves able to introduce and expose viewers to new lands and new sceneries. They are able to recreate reality without idealizing or aesthetically distorting their depictions and hence, introduce foreign places, faces, and things to the public.

Gary Nader Gallery welcomes, for the third time, a solo exhibition of the Chilean artist’s work since 2002. However Muñoz Vera, who has lived in Spain for the past 23 years, has seen a shift in his traditional, detailed still-lives. In 2002, the president of the metro station La Moneda, located next to the Houses of Parliament in Santiago, commissioned a series of large-scale paintings from the artist. The theme Muñoz Vera chose for the fourteen murals, which would cover approximately 180 square meters of the station’s platform walls, was the Chilean landscape and its people. His decision, however, altered his notion of painting; after traveling throughout Chile, he realized that whereas his traditional painting technique involved the use of minute details, depicting large-scale landscapes made such specificities indiscernible. Instead, the fundamental challenge became using brushstrokes to synthesize natural light, geographical creases and, most importantly, to create a real sense of space and distance between spectators and the panoramic views.

Nonetheless, the artist is able to capture much more than just a landscape in his works and paintings like The Andes in March; The Mountain Range of the Andes I; and The Andes in September prove how easily Muñoz Vera’s artistic abilities conquered the so-called challenge. Such paintings become windows that invite the audience to take a look into another world. As one approaches The Mountain Range of the Andes, the experience of vertigo, feeling one’s sense of security threatened by the depths that lay before the eyes, is inevitable. Muñoz Vera’s ability to use black shadows to recreate the abysmal trenches of the precipices of the Andes transports the public to another dimension: to the edge of a cliff, facing the void.

During the past two years Muñoz Vera has not limited himself to Chilean landscapes; scenes from Miami and Cuba, as well as several still-lives and portraits are also part of Gary Nader Fine Arts’ exhibit. While naturalism appeals to his depictions of Chile, realism more relevant to Gustave Courbet’s sociopolitical ideas is presented in Muñoz Vera’s scenes of Miami and Cuba.

It is perhaps unintentional that Sunset in Miami II and Castro create such socially and politically charged statements. Due to the obvious contradictions in their contents, the paintings become packed with symbolism when placed side-by-side. Castro is a crude call to reality to those who enjoy the luxury of Miami’s landscape, filled with city lights and skyscrapers, and who tend to forget the reality of a world that exists just a few miles away and the conditions of those who inhabit the beaches of Castro. Nonetheless, if the paintings are placed separately, the sociopolitical effect dissipates, causing one to appreciate and focus on the technical value of the landscapes instead.

In his portraits of Two Afghan Women and E.Z.L.N., the artist avoids any pretenses to bring attention to social issues that plague our contemporary world. In Two Afghan Women, two women wearing blue burqas sit quietly in an empty room, with only a wall behind them on which the shadow of one of them is cast. The 100 x 150 centimeter canvas has each woman sitting at opposite ends and seems to create a vacuum between them, making the wall behind them seem even more apparent to the viewer. Yet what most stuns the viewer is the subtlety with which Muñoz Vera works and how his simplicity and cleanliness are able to work together to create such a strong statement, to raise so much consciousness and awareness by depicting such a simple scene. The sense of serenity he captures in this particular painting works, and ironically supplies the viewer with profound sadness by providing an insight to what Western cultures see as a violation to human rights. If Muñoz Vera had chosen to portray two women wearing jeans and T-shirts instead, the painting would become meaningless and forgettable. Nevertheless, the image of the two Afghan women resounds days after having visited the exhibit. E.Z.L.N. uses more shock-value in order to reach out to our senses. Replacing the subtlety of Two Afghan Women, a young man wearing a black shirt with the E.Z.L.N. insignias (National Zapatista Liberation Front) holds a human skull with a bullet hole in it. The use of black in the background increases the sinister atmosphere, and the direct and bold scene stirs revulsion and anger among viewers.

Muñoz Vera is objective in his portrayal of the world that surrounds him. His realism succeeds whether his focus is to capture the beauty of nature or to expose the crudeness of the world. Either way, the artist enables us, the viewers, to give the necessary attention to everyday things and events that may go by unnoticed. Without pretense, the artist is able to translate the customs, ideas, and appearance of the world as he sees it into a living art.


*An exhibition of works of Muñoz Vera was on view through June 10th at Forum Gallery in New York.