Mauricio Contreras- Paredes
By Séverine Grosjean @severinegrosjean
Mauricio Contreras- Paredes, a young Guatemalan artist, immerses us in the exploration of space not visible through painting and sculpture with the use of innovative materials such as acrylic gouache, plexiglas. In his various works, he explores the sensory processes of our encounter with space.
There is no evidence that allows us to identify the place in which we find ourselves. Everything is very ambiguous. In his work, Mauricio not only tells us about the distance as we know it, what can be calculated but also the distance cut, diminished especially visible in his sculpture. For him, distance is not just physical.
You can also imagine it. His work has been simplified both by forms and by colors. In his stay in Brazil, in 2013, his painting was less organized, more organic, exuberant, for the shapes and colors as the Brazilian space.
Today is another work that we discovered, more geometric and simplified. Its palette of colors is more austere, mainly blue as if it returned to the palette a Canadian space with its cold winter. The atmosphere is quite monastic. Sometimes, some details of colors are introduced and can indicate the circulation of the viewer's gaze in the painting. Allowing a slow and quiet introduction.
Unity, spaces, forms occupy the mind of Mauricio Contreras-Paredes. These architectural fragments: encounters between two walls, a corridor fit for the control of contrasts of light and shadow. The atmosphere created by Mauricio generates imagination and freedom to explore a past, present or future space. He reinvents the timeless with an intimate and distant look.
For each project, he works with an average of twenty patterns seeingall the possibilities of the chosen space. He works simultaneously in several canvasescreating a dynamic. He creates his paintings "like a timeline". They are complementary giving a substance to hisdesigns by turning them into sculptures. A newspace and a new reality are built.
