Pepe López
Ideobox Artpsace. Miami
One of them was the suggestive proposal of Pepe López, a Venezuelan artist that works with the heritage of geometric art in the region associated to environmental issues in contemporary society. Pepe López’s works make a strong impression in the first place on account of their plasticity. His proposal is distinguished by the purity of forms and the masterly use of color: simple modular structures are articulated to create a complicated entity which populates the space of the gallery as if it were an organic being, suggesting universes of great beauty.
The highly evocative quality of these structures gives free rein to our imagination, leading us along the most unsuspected paths. Papagallos, included in the present show, is an example of this. The installation, endowed with great lyricism, boasts an impressive simplicity. Composed by wooden rods and strings reproducing the structures of comets, the complex scaffolding recreates sinuous waves, as if the capricious procession of comets we observe were animated by the wind.
The Sombras (Shadows) series, on the other hand, comprises triangular pieces that interconnect, adapting themselves to the exhibition space. The structures, occasionally entirely white, appear to emerge from the gallery walls. In others, the planar surface plays with chromatic changes that emphasize the ludic character of the work. As its title rightly indicates, light becomes a component element of the work, in which the interactions of light and darkness become integral to the perception of the whole. Pepe López’s proposal relies on ordinary materials with which we coexist in our everyday life. Paper, string, adhesive tape, polyethilene bags, are changed into whimsical swarms, networks that allude to the artificial world of post- industrial society, in which nature has been definitively replaced by man made materials.
His series Geometrías desechables (Discardable Geometries) is based on the delicacy of the precarious. The artist utilizes polyethilene bags of the most varied colors and black orbeige adhesive tape to compose his works. The texture of both mate- rials renders the tactile quality an essential element in this series in which the discourse on the environment is crucial: López resorts to elements which are not unpleasant and he re- utilizes them to reincorporate them in society, metamorphosing waste material into artwork.
