05:59 by Concordia Studio
A multi-generational dialogue on time, color and nature, through landscape painting, drawing, and sculpture
On view through November 7th, at NADA’s exhibition space on the edge of East Broadway’s gallery scene, Concordia Studio’s Danielle Juliao has partnered with Colombian curator Martin Isaza to conceptualize a group exhibition concerned with nature represented in landscape art. A group of six artists, all from and based in Colombia, have worked together and consider each other colleagues and friends, as their shared interest in capturing nature through painting, drawing, and sculpture has brought them together. Now we have the great pleasure of experiencing a carefully curated exhibition, where this body of work is in dialogue with each other, as part of Concordia’s growing effort to showcase the depths of the Latin American contemporary art scene.
Juan Rodriguez, Flor Azul, 2024, Oil on canvas, 174 x 192 in
The name of this group exhibition, 5:59, is clearly an allusion to a time of day. For anyone who has lived in Colombia, this time is of relevant significance. Due to a lack of seasons, in this place there’s no such thing as daylight savings, meaning daybreak and sunset times are the same all year round, at around 6 AM and PM. It stands to reason then, that 5:59 is always a time of day that signifies change. It’s that ambiguous time where it’s neither daytime or night time, it’s some unknown time in the middle. The group of artists present in this exhibition share a wonderful fascination with this concept of change, and the range of experimentation that exists within those minutes in time. Among the group of artists that make up this exhibition, we also see a play with time in the mastery of their career stages. We could say that three generations are being represented thus.
Alejandro Sintura (2000) has recently graduated from his undergraduate studies, and has had a significant presence in the exhibition space throughout his young career. His work is known for the study of light in his surroundings through his use of color. Falling within the curatorial scope of 5:59, he enjoys the time of day since it’s characterized by its high color saturation and low contrast. Horizonte (Horizon), 2024, is a massive diptych spanning 142 inches in width captures the sky at around this time of day. It brings forward thoughts of a quiet time, where the first hints of light show evidence of elements in the night sky, and when birds start calling their daily morning songs.
Alejandro Sintura, Horizonte, 2024, Oil on canvas, 35 x 142 in. 90 x 360 cm.
Luisa Montoya’s Casa de cristal (Crystal House), 2024, is part of her most recent body of work. Usually known for her paintings, we have the chance to know a different facet of her work, as she sticks to graphite sketches. They stay true to her overall work that is mostly concerned with capturing the passing of time, and moments of stillness. Having spent a significant amount of time in waiting rooms in recent months, Montoya focused on representing just how slowly time can seem to pass at certain moments in life. Within this body of work, we can also see different stages that go through her mind at these times. Between sticking to mundane tasks to the point of boredom, which is where the body comes out and expresses itself in the stroke. Boredom gives birth to creativity, and therefore life. It’s a live exploration, all in the vast ocean of what seems like endless time.
Luisa Montoya, Casa de cristal, 2024, graphite on paper. 27.5 x 39 in. 70 x 100 cm.
Permanence and impermanence lay in the middle of Juan Rodriguez Varon’s painting style. He utilizes color and movement to explore themes of time, light, and nature. Reflejo amarillo (Yellow Reflection), 2019, aptly represents the focus on color and his full range of movement that usually accompanies Rodriguez Varon’s oeuvre. Aptly versed in studies of nature, his work is recognized by a unique representation of form through light and shadow that border abstraction. The almost monochrome painting of deep yellows, mirrors the colors that come about as the sun makes contact with the horizon and hits a body of water which reflects back the same color, and thus marks the start or ending of the day. As deep purple is the color of penumbra, yellow is the color of direct sunlight. Water only appears yellow if the sun is practically perpendicular to the horizon. I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling of odd nostalgia that is tied together with this odd time of day.
Juan Rodriguez, Reflejo amarillo, 2019, Oil on Canvas. 39 x 79 in. 100 x 200 cm.
In contrasting dialog and color, we are faced with Ana Mosseri’s Tarde de perros en el campo II, variación #3 (Afternoon With The Dogs in the Field II, variation #3), 2022, another large scale painting that makes part of a color study titled El disco de Newton (Newton's Disk), 2022, of her dogs playing in a grassy field around this time. Here, Mosseri showcases her deep understanding of color theory, through activities that she also gives her art students (some of which make part of this exhibition). An age-old practice implemented by great painting masters in order to understand how light and color are mutually linked. The level of training the eye goes through to successfully create a vivid representation of what a time like 5:59 looks like, serves to prove Mosseri’s mastery. As viewers, we can accurately imagine the colors at this time, late evening after the sun has left. We begin to understand the depth of theory that goes behind the creation of Mosseri’s paintings. In a conversation with the artist, the 2019 publication titled Landscape Painting Now by Todd Bradway came up as one of the most prominent references that accompanies the understanding of color theory, and the resurgence of landscape art in the contemporary scene.
Ana Mosseri, Tarde de perros en el campo II (variación #3), 2022, 59 x 47 inch. 150 x 120 cm.
We then turn to the masters that make up this impeccable selection of artistic talent. Providing a refreshing element of depth in three dimensions, Teresa Sanchez delights us with her work of organic wood sculptures. Having had an extensive artistic development that began in the 80’s from painting bright colors on wooden blocks, Sanchez radically transformed her style into working with the natural figures and colors of wood, and never looked back. The essence of her work on the subject of nature, time, and memory, working wholly on natural mediums, has exalted through her transition out of modern abstraction, into organic abstraction. Her sculptures are closely related to the natural environment where she grew up in, at the northern coast of Colombia where the jungle, the ocean, and the weather rule over all other things. Contorno (Contour), 2000, is an early piece in this series of organically shaped sculptures. We see how she utilizes the natural and sinuous shape of the wooden block, to evoke a reminiscence with nature, in an equally modernist sculpture.
Teresa Sanchez, Contorno, Carved wood, 2000
Equally concerned with the form of nature is Margarita Gutierrez. Another master in her own right, Gutierrez relates to the group of artists in more ways than one, particularly in her studious practice and a deep seeded passion for painting as a representation of emotion and memory. Gutierrez divides her time between her studio in Bogota, and a seaside home. In her practice, she is known for working on the abstract natural forms, colors, and impermanence that are present in nature. Her fluid stroke dialogs in unison with Sanchez’s work as well as others in the exhibition. Her work with vivid colors, the allusions to abstraction, demonstrate her capability of approaching her practice in a multi faceted way. Ola cálida (Warm Wave), 2022, is a keen representation of fleeting time, a wave that comes and goes, and never comes back. She touches upon elements like time, permanence, shadow and light, and a blueish grayish sky that could easily be seen at 5:59.
Margarita Gutierrez, Ola Cálida, 2022, Oil on canvas, 22 x 44 in. 55x110 cm.
