Pablo Calderon: Nine Years in the Making

Gallery Exhibition/Event
Posted on December 15, 2011

January 12 through February 29, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm


Location: 3245 16th Street (at Guerrero Street), San Francisco CA 94103

San Francisco, December 15, 2011— According to Pablo Calderon, bigger is better. The Salvadorian artist not only paints on the largest sheets of paper and canvases he can find, his signature bicycles, trucks and faces take over these surfaces — nudging right up to the edges as if they are about to roll right off. Large brush strokes and bold color swatches add to the intensity of these pieces, making the act of viewing them a powerfully visceral experience. Calderon works quickly and deliberately, and thus has created a vast number of works in his nine years at Creativity Explored — establishing him as one of the studio/gallery’s most prolific artists. 

Bicycles and trucks may not be the most unusual subject matter, but Calderon’s treatment of them is. Playing with perspective and form, two and four wheel modes of transportation become delightfully abstract and surprisingly anthropomorphic. Each bicycle in this show has its own unique personality: one is thick, bright red and has multi-colored tires and spokes; another bike is thin, yellow and has bright white tires. Together the bikes in this diverse series are a compelling cast of characters — uniform only in that they were all executed on 60”W x 38”H sheets of paper (almost “actual size”) and are without titles.

Calderon’s trucks are just as interesting to visually unpack. Like the bicycles, these massive forms take up every inch of paper and canvas, employ every color in the spectrum and each have their own identity — differing in size, shape and color scheme. What’s extraordinarily interesting about Calderon’s trucks though, is his use of perspective. He exclusively paints trucks from the top or bottom, exposing their underbellies and revealing birds’ eye views. Each painting is a unique puzzle, requiring a quick inventory of abstracted truck parts in order to determine whether you are under the vehicle or on top and which end is which.

Calderon brings this same playfulness to his face paintings — another recurring subject in his oeuvre. Round, toothy, multi-colored faces with big curly hair appear as portraits and in multiples. While each has its own Warholian color treatment (i.e. a red face with blue hair and green eyebrows), they all have ecstatic smiles that verge on grimaces, wide eyes, and prominent eyebrows. Though Calderon doesn’t talk about who these people are, one can’t help but think these are portraits of the artist himself due to likeness. 

In addition to bicycles, trucks and faces, there are a few surprises in this solo exhibition — one 60”W x 38”H painting of a very well endowed red-faced bull on paper is laugh out loud funny. It is Calderon’s sly humor, his bold and expansive color palette and the sheer size of his work that makes him unlike any other artist at Creativity Explored. He has no use for parameters. “He walks into the studio ready to work. If paints are not already arranged for him, he will grab them and approach his work surface — usually the largest paper or canvas available — with great intentionality,” says Paul Moshammer, Studio Manager, Visual Arts Instructor and Co-curator of this exhibition. “His process is very deliberate, as is his subject matter and persona, but Pablo can also be quiet and brooding, which reveals his sensitive side,” adds Kelley Kerslake, Visual Arts Instructor and Curator with Moshammer. Exhibition visitors will sense this duality as they walk the blurry line he draws between figurative material and abstract, and try to answer questions that arise from his indexing process… Where are these bikes and trucks going? Where have they been? One thing is for sure, they are certainly on the move — and so is Calderon. 

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When
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Exhibition Dates and Times: January 12 through Febraury 29, 2012; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm; Thursday 10:00 am to 7:00 pm; Saturday & Sunday 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Where
Creativity Explored Gallery, 3245 16th Street at Guerrero Street, San Francisco CA 94103 (Map)

Information
(415) 863-2108
www.creativityexplored.org

Cost
FREE

Creativity Explored is a nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell art.

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