Eduardo Portillo: Planos Moldeados

Anya Tish Gallery is thrilled to announce Planos Moldeados, a solo exhibition featuring new work by El Salvador-born, Houston-based artist Eduardo Portillo. This is Portillo’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. Opening Reception: Friday, November 18, 6:00 – 8:30 pm. On view: November 18 – December 23, 2016.

Expanding upon the ideas that sparked the experimental and iconic shaped canvases of the 1960s, Eduardo Portillo constructs irregularly shaped wooden armatures that are wall dependent, yet protrude into the space in ways traditional, rectangular paintings do not.

It is over these extruding frames that he stretches canvas, taking care to ensure no wrinkles or folds are conspicuous, if present at all. These works exceed the boundaries of diamonds, trapezoids and triangles, with mountainous topographies that undulate between elevated points of pressure and fluid expanses of space.

Some works are pure white, some have fluorescent edges that reflect and glow onto the wall, some nestle tightly together. Alongside painting, Portillo is well versed in sculpting and sewing, both of which attest to his impeccable hand and contribute to his ability to push the paintings into real space.

Portillo finds inspiration in the city of Houston: the forms of its buildings both finished and unfinished, and the way they interact with surrounding space, sky and light.

Of his work, Portillo states “[it] breathes life into these ordinarily lifeless areas, celebrating the tension between implied capacity and imposed boundary.”

The paintings’ movement into real space forces a physical engagement from the audience; the three dimensional pieces, their dramatic and revealing shadows, and the space they inhabit are not only to be looked at from a usual vantage point, but demand to be peered around and explored further.

Eduardo Portillo relocated to Houston from El Salvador in 2003 to pursue an education in art, and received a BFA in Painting from the University of Houston in 2011. He has been awarded recent artist residencies with Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas as well as the Vermont Studio Center, and his work has been widely exhibited across Texas in such venues as Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio; Lawndale Art Center, Houston; Site 131, Dallas; and Galveston Art Center, Galveston, with forthcoming exhibitions in Marfa, TX and Torino, Italy.

In 2013, his exhibition with the HCC Central Art Gallery was included in the Texas Biennial.