Serene and surrealistic, Alexis Lago’s watercolors (and a
few oil paintings) call to mind scenes from storybooks or fables, often casting
man and nature at odds or in tandem. His exhibition, Possible Moves, is now on view at Couturier Gallery. Expect to be
welcomed by a beaming, Klimt-esque oil painting from across the room, this flanked
by a whimsical and equally contemplative ensemble of works.
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Lago is a Cuban native whose gentle yet crisp strokes lend
his work a distinct quality; the same goes for his sensitive treatment of
marine animals, a relic of his background in biochemistry. In Penitente (Penitence), a stream of fish
fall headlong from the sky like meteors, straight towards a patch of earth in
which a man is buried. The man is Lago himself, his head protruding just above
the surface, awaiting the inevitable. The painting’s verticality is not
isolated; much of Lago’s work assumes this format, highlighting binaries like
sky and earth, groundedness and flight. In Concilio
de abajo y arriba (Council of Above and Below), a crane extends its neck
from out of a sallow sky, looking down (perhaps) on a scene of clashing ships
below. It strikes a contrast between the madness of man and the serenity of beasts.
Maybe being a polar bear, a solitary creature, isn’t so bad after all.
Lago’s oil paintings are just as
vivid. That Klimt-esque painting, Move of
the Eraser Fish, is strikingly beautiful. Three men bear the weight of a
monstrous fish laden with color, almost like a patchwork quilt. The heavy
lifters are in motion, floating through a golden, ethereal space. It is a scene
of struggle amidst celebration. The piece calls to mind a painting by the early
twentieth-century artist Suzanne Valadon, Le
Lancement du Filet (Casting of the Nets)—an imagined prequel to Move of the Eraser Fish.
Indeed Lago leaves much room for
imagining. His own creativity encourages it, be it a centaur-portrait or a tree
of human portraits in the form of what? acorns? They are whatever you want them
to be.
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| Arbol de la ida y vuelta (Round Trip Tree), 2012 Watercolor on paper |
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