De saltos y tropiezos
Bringing together recent works by Bernardo Ortiz and Luis Roldan, the exhibition De saltos y tropiezos is the result of a year-long intellectual exchange between the artists. Thanks to their affinity for painting, their similar artistic pursuits and a longtime friendship, Ortíz and Roldán engage in an artistic dialogue marked by issues of confinement and the impossibility of leading a life free from temporal and spatial restrictions.
Paintings, objects and sculptures by Luis Roldán are carefully interwoven in the exhibition space with drawings on fabric and paper by Bernardo Ortíz. Far from respecting a linear order, the disposition of the works in space is sensed as a series of visual leaps, where scale, color and technical variations, lead the spectator through a visual and material journey distinguished by poetic accents and subtleties. On the one hand, Roldán’s work underlines the importance of the artist’s manual skill in relation to discipline— a virtue that for many has become a lifesaver in the midst of global pandemic— while also celebrating his exploration of abstraction through painting and found objects. Ortíz’s work, on the other hand, brings forth his renewed interest in the visual and conceptual qualities of text and in the use of fragile supports in works that highlight the significance of carefully contained and painstaking craftsmanship.
De saltos y tropiezos is a live exhibition that will continue to be nurtured as time progresses. With the sole purpose of lacking a sense of linearity and coherence akin to that of artistic processes and life itself, the show aims to provoke a variety of readings around the themes of loneliness and encounter.
Luis Roldán (Cali, 1955) studied Architecture at the Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá and Etching and Art History in Paris. Some of his most recent exhibitions include: La vida oculta de los objetos, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, 2020; Encanto, SN Macarena, Bogotá, 2019; Sospecha, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, 2017; Textile abstraction, a curatorial weaving by Jens Hoffmann, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, 2018; Periplo. A retrospective 1986-2016, Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá, 2016; Rompecabezas, Museo La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia, 2015; Salón Regional Zona Centro, Universidad Nacional, Bogotá, Colombia, 2015; “Why Abstract Art?”, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia, 2015; Colombia Recounted. A Project of Contemporary Colombian Art, Christie 's, New York, USA, 2015; Expiación, Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá, Colombia, 2014; and Presión y flujo, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia, 2014.
Bernardo Ortiz (Cali, 1972) studied Art and Literature at the Universidad de los Andes en Bogotá and Philosophy at the Universidad Del Valle in Cali. Some of his most recent exhibitions include: Diálogos: Marginalidad y clandestinidad/Abstracción, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia, 2019; The Matter of Photography in the Americas, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, USA, 2018; Textile abstraction, a curatorial weaving by Jens Hoffmann, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia, 2018; Bernardo Ortiz, Erick Beltrán: Tipología del espejo, Espacio Odeón, Bogotá, Colombia, 2018; Matriz do tempo real, MAC, São Paulo, Brazil, 2018; Baja Resolución, Casas Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia; Amerikanische lieder, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, UK, 2018; Borrar, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2016; 20th Sydney Biennale, Sydney, Australia, 2016.
