Ecuador
Tangled Roots and Neon Lights
2013
Oil on stainless steel
61 x 183cm
Jovan Karlo Villalba is a painter who employs a method of painting which combines expressionist mark-making with an additive and subtractive layering technique. The conceptual focus of his work focuses on mans relationship to nature. He has been shown in over fifty exhibitions worldwide, and featured in a documentary titled Imagination Unleashed: An Artisan’s Journey that aired nationally on Ovation TV
On this piece, the artist states:
Tangled Roots and Neon Lights was inspired by what is happening to the environment around me. The creative approach for this painting consisted of presenting transitional slices, side-by-side to depict a narrative of a familiar coastal topography. A birds eye view of diagonally interwoven slices of rural flatlands, shrubby mangroves, urban foundations, and turbulent waters make up the environment fabric that strives to hold together, as it tears itself apart. Reminiscent of a crack that runs when pressure is applied, darkness sets in from above and down the center of the landscape. Vertical shards and drooping powerlines flow downward across the panorama into angry waters, symbolizing man’s digression and struggle to coexist with the land beneath their feet.
The work is presented in oil paint on brushed stainless steel. The steel platform functions as a mechanism, reflecting and engaging viewers, while completing an image that is in constant flux, navigating between a depicted and a real – and present – environment. This effect further emphasizes the purpose of the work – to bring light to the ultimate balance that symbolizes the delicate relationship that mankind has with Mother Nature while reflecting accountability to every viewer that stands by to witness the travesty.”
Select Previous Exhibitions
- OG Kush, Artsy – Alfa Gallery, Miami, FL 2019
- Raw Pop Up, Art Basel, Miami, FL, 2018
- Exposed, Art & Culture Center of Hollywood, Miami, FL, 2018
Education
Cooper Union, New York, NY
