Lefebvre et Fils
Paris, May 2019
In this series of pieces, Artist-in-residence José Sierra creates an intense cohesion of emotive colors and organic and geometrical forms whose visual language is readily familiar and intelligible and yet, mysterious. Named for the sacred plateau-mountain of Sarisariñama, and its immense sink-hole whose unique habitat is believed to house an evil spirit that devours human flesh, the body of work reveals how the intense and dramatic landscapes of his native Venezuela inform his work. Similarly, the images and memories of coffee mills, intensely colored mountains, as well as pre-Colombian art and architecture of the Andean region of Venezuela all form an important part of Jose Sierra’s visual inspirations.
Whereas the geology of Sarisariñama devours the human form, here the forms reveal the merging of geological and anatomical forms and vibrant and earthy colors reflective of emotional states, producing a narrative between form and color. By altering wheel-thrown stoneware and porcelain, the work fuses organic and geometrical forms that reflects a harmonious play of sculpture and abstract painting. Using abstraction as a vehicle of expression to give free reign to the dialog between the form and the abstraction so that can coexist in the same form.
Sierra’s vibrant and earthy color palette includes an orange of caution and dark green orifices remind us of impenetrable wilderness and lands of lost dreams of conquest, where the underestimated power of nature can consume you.
