Aldo Chaparro

Lluvia
October 7, 2023

Who is afraid of fierce paint?

Lluvia is not only the first exhibition of the artist Aldo Chaparro (Peru, 1965) in Monterrey after a very long time; It is also the first time that he shows us the lesser-known side of him: that of a painter.

There are many possible narratives to describe this artist's career, but none of them are linear. All are marked by experimentation with different formats, the search for new languages, and endless references where his passion for music, architecture, fashion, literature, and different moments in the history of art come together. However, the great constant between the different layers that constitute his body of work is sculpture.

This exhibition, mostly of paintings, means for the artist and for the Colector gallery a declaration of principles. Aldo Chaparro has played with this format since the beginning of his career, but always from the perspective of a sculptor, with strategies typical of an artist who works in 3 dimensions and who tries to have control of the two-dimensional result of what he produces.

Lluvia is the first time we see the artist addressing the subject as a painter, from his first encounter with the canvas to the last.

Aldo Chaparro's urgency to confront the backstage with “pictorial honesty” becomes flexible when it comes to incorporating external elements such as frames that, as an almost Deco gesture, asymmetrically support the work, or fragments of fabric with patterns by Nathalie Du Pasquier or animal print that add new readings to his work. The change in its relationship with material, texture, or different color palettes is also reflected in its theme: in its apparent abstraction and repetition of patterns, elements such as clouds and the glow in the water appear, which refer us to their representations in Tibetan and Japanese culture where, among other things, they symbolize purity and clarity, renewal and spiritual cleansing. To virtue after the flood.

- Enrique Giner de los Rios