ASTOLFO FUNES
En blanco

24 July - 24 August 2010

Cocktail Reception with the Artist, Saturday 24 July, 5-7 p.m.

artists on artists visit+discussion with Teri Kennedy, Saturday 14 August, 4:30 p.m.

Click here to view the exhibition

Click here for a brief video tour

Solar is showing the work of Astolfo Funes this summer, a passionate, risk-taking painter in the best of the Latin spirit. His flamboyantly colorful, expressionistic paintings of everyday women are inherently bold and visually exploratory. (Jonathan Willard, LI Pulse, August 2010). To read the entire article in LI Pulse Click here

Read the interview with Astolfo Funes about ‘En blanco’ in El Nacional, Venezuela (en español)

Astolfo Funes (b. 1973, Venezuela) is recognized for aggressive abstractions with vibrant colours in paintings and drawings featuring figures of women portrayed in various settings and activities. Yellow and orange hues have predominated in past works, however in current paintings the artist brings the black line to the fore, emphasising it by leaving the background white, thus lending the figure more dimension and a graphic quality. “En blanco” (In White) describes the shift to a more minimal style and also encapsulates the ideas of starting with a blank canvas and a clear mind. These new works are the result of paring down to essentials: line, colour, form.

Beyond the formal, however, Funes continues to recreate (and recreate in) lives of women. Typically they shop, visit the doctor, sit at a café or bar, walk the dog. Funes’ women are empowered and empowering, their visages -in turn, serene, intense, or melancholy- always offering a direct gaze. Multiple figures might populate a canvas that, on occasion, will include the lone figure of a man (soldier, barman, physician); or the artist will zoom in on the face so that it fills the entire canvas.