RODRÍGUEZ SILVA. An almost approximate version

We wrap up 2022 with the exhibition An almost approximate version by the Sevillian artist Rodríguez Silva (Olivares, 1960). In this, his fourth exhibition in the gallery Fernando Pradilla, our halls welcome his monochromatic environment which compels the spectator to perceive and feel the physical qualities of form, the sensible nature of materials, and the artist’s connection, at times rather fortuitous, with the pictorial process.

The work of Rodríguez Silva is the expression of an investigative parcours concerning the very nature of painting, in its literality as artistic object, renouncing to any external reference and making use of non-traditional formats such as steel, aluminum, iron sheets, cardboard or paper, over which he unfolds pigments and emulsions, which far from suppressing the pictorial mark, spread an expansive and objectual emphasis across his work which bridges the dimensions between painting and sculpture.

Rodríguez Silva defines his own work as synthetic and reflexive, the result of a constant investigation over the materials and the surfaces, and asserts that “I have never been interested in representing visible reality, but rather use the resources within reach to arrange certain liquid or malleable substances over flat surfaces, and thus shape a painting that will reflect, to a certain extent, the image I started with, which tend to be mental images which either surface of their own or emerge as version of previous ones, which is what provides me continuous work in the studio.”

The exhibition that Rodríguez Silva presents in our gallery gathers recent oil paintings on paper (Los Llanos and Nuevas Distancias) from 2021-2022; also acrylic emulsions paintings on folded sheets of aluminum-vanadium alloy (Frontal en Fuga), or on thick, square sheets of aluminum (Los pequeños fuegos); and some prototypes that operate as preparatory process for the two- and three-dimensional work, which the artist shapes with cardboard to then work the composition and the presence of future works.

An almost approximate version perhaps makes reference to that quest which the artist tends his steps; an itinerary of formal and conceptual discoveries which allow him to “order ideas, concentrate them into a fact, a work which ultimately contains the experience of this quest. Propitiate the flight of meaning towards a new version. Reject the attribute, in order to glimpse, decide, act, make presence, accept.” R.S.

Last April, Rodríguez Silva presented his work at the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Sevilla (COAS) with the exhibition ZOOM, where he expressed once again his commitment to the visual direction that sets his artistic work apart: “The material, both painting and the surface I apply it on, both have the same weight when it comes to the final result of the work. I have the first word, but the material has the last word. Thus, I always make sure to treat the materials with as much respect as possible so that they exert themselves as they are.” R.S.

The exhibition An Approximate Version, produced in collaboration with the art critic and curator Francisco Carpio, will be open to the public until February 11th, 2023.