Bendana | Pinel Art Contemporain is pleased to present Julio Rondo's fourth solo exhibition " Future Standards " at the gallery.
Julio Rondo uses memory fragments of situations and sensations as the starting point for his multi-layered compositions. In abstract visual language, he explores the phenomenon of the involuntary occurrence of memories. It is not the restoration of the past encapsulated in memory as a figurative or narrative representation that is important to the artist. It is the “essence” of the stored perceptions of people, events and places that is reflected in his work.
Julio Rondo has explored abstract painting while remaining true to painting behind glass for his whole career. Brilliant blocks of color in pink, green, bright orange, and cool blue arise by broad strokes on the back of the glass complemented by colorfields on the backboard of the frame. In the interplay of these two image layers, Julio Rondo achieves an extraordinary color intensity. In his painting process, no correction is possible, as Rondo pulls the liquid acrylic in broad, unrestrained brushstrokes over the smooth surface. The moment of action is important – like in fresco technique orJapanese Sumi-e painting, where pace in applying color and the highmastery of the material are crucial. In this concentrated way he preserves the tension of the texture and the immediacy of the pure brushstroke as the essence of the artist‘s painting movement, as a snapshot, as a memory directly accessible by the viewer.
Another layer, in addition to glass and backboard, and the atmospheric layer inbetween, are the titles of his works. Rondo often assigns these titles in a purely associative manner. References to personal memories, music and philosophy add an additional dimension to the work, which must be thought of as another color. For this exhibition Rondo chose the title " Future Standards " referencing an album by singer/songwriter Howe Gelb as another fragment of memory added and materialized in this body of work. A playlist accompanying the exhibition will be available.
