Juan Alonso
 www.JuanAlonso.info

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Please find below past links, statements, and information.

(2007)

Juan Alonso’s newest paintings, all of which have been worked in shades of grey, may at first confound those who think of Alonso as a painter of dazzlingly colorful hothouse horticulture. Memories, real and imagined, of the tropical vegetation of his native Cuba have inspired Alonso’s paintings in the past. His botanical beauties have always been seductive but sinister – Venus flytraps whose alluring looks mask something less lovely inside. For an artist who became a political exile at age 10, the place where nostalgia and yearning meet political reality can be as jarring as a beautiful but poisonous plant.

Grey Matters, Alonso’s latest body of work, is also about the disparity between the truth we think we see and the nuances behind the surface. In a world increasingly polarized by extreme points of view, between those who see only black or only white, Alonso’s new work asks us to consider infinite shades of grey.

The imagery in Grey Matters is abstract, though it is easy to perceive suggestions of curvaceous architectural details, silhouettes of botanical forms, crosses, and the scales of justice suspended precariously in the air with no steadying hand to support them. Many of the works also resemble Rorschach inkblots rendered with a baroque flair. Like the images used in diagnostic psychology, those paintings are open to interpretation. For starters, take a look at the shadows behind the plump curlicues that fan out like green shoots emerging from the mother vine. As in certain ghost stories and horror movies, the shadows move independently.

Like his Cuban hothouse divas, Alonso’s new works are underpainted with a disquieting sense that all is not what it seems. Though the surfaces are luscious – the varnished surfaces of his new work shimmer like reflective pools – they distract from what is underneath. Alonso asks us to look more closely.

Robin Updike
Artist's Statement

 

Grey Matters

It seems to be human nature to accept things as what we are told they are. There is not much difference in the way we accept new words or phrases for new ideas and concepts. We tend to believe what we read in newspapers and see on the news without questioning or digging any further to make sure it is indeed true, until something affects us so deeply that it makes us read between the lines. It is much more interesting to allow each viewer to come away with their own interpretation of this body of work. I can say that the idea for this series came from very different sources. From politics to current and past world events, I have found that things at opposite ends of a spectrum can be surprisingly and sometimes frighteningly similar.

I chose a monochromatic scheme to further de-specify the images in this series, hoping that the viewer explores further what is not obviously there. Nothing is completely black & white. The grey also matters. The full story is much more important than the sound bite, and that requires thinking.

Juan Alonso
2007