Diatribe

NATURA VS ANIMALIDAD VS HUMANIDAD:
unas notas sobre la obra de Gerard Ellis
La obra del joven artista dominicano Gerard Ellis (Santo Domingo, 1976) parte de una fcil premisa de registros visuales que simulan simplificar la mirada en su reduccin cromtica y en los ajustes compositivos de sus escenas; en cambio, es una obra que se va complejizando inmediatamente en cuanto la mirada logra detenerse ms de un segundo ante ella.

Es en este detenimiento donde descubrimos que esto (su obra) no es slo el desliz de una veloz resolucin dibujstica que ilustra un universo onrico dalineano, donde la mancha se hace figura y la figura mancha en un tiempo narrativo que desaparece y grita su nombre en un susurro lejano.

No, precisamente este facilimo, su obra no es.

La produccin que conozco de Gerard Ellis, una obra que ha nacido y sigue naciendo en la Era Post-Medial de la Ciencia Ficcin, la TV por cable e Internet y la virtualidad; se mueve alrededor de la metfora de cierto simbolismo analtico que gira sobre la idea del sentido originario de los animales, su sentido pristgeno y cmo el humano se lo ha arrancado, humillando su naturaleza, y el devenir de las relaciones que los seres humanos tenemos entonces con estos animales, en tanto convivimos con ellos, o en tanto evitamos convivir con ellos; es decir; estamos en una relacin bilateral de enemistad. O sea, en tanto esta relacin es y se manifiesta abiertamente como una relacin de obvia referencialidad del Poder Dominante.

Y aqu en esta reverberacin de analogas, metforas, ficciones reflexivas o diatribas especulativas de la friccin Humano-Animal: Ellis encontr un filn de oro por donde escarbar hasta donde se contradicen, apoyan, o yuxtaponen ambas naturalezas.

Si bien en su serie de perros dibujados en un detallista y virtuoso B&W sobre espaciados fondos nevados, o planicies neo-pop, el artista nos sugeran humanoides referencias a actitudes vitales del domstico can, donde el humano trasmutaba su docilidad en sumisa arma de guerra, vigilancia, y control; en su obra ms actual, Ellis contrapuntea en la relacin directa del animal, est vez, ya no precisamente domstico (igual un buho, una serpiente, un cybor-dog, entre otros) con el hombre.

Dotados de un dramatismo que bien podra ser ledo como proposiciones picas, cargados de cierta mitologizacin de las escenas ocurridas en el marco de cada una de las obras, donde la irrealidad del movimiento plstico de cada una de ellas hablan de velocidad y estatismo, parlisis y agresin, siendo la dicotoma diacrnica del movimiento mental del espectador quien dicta las leyes de esta nueva produccin del artista. En una esttica que sin ninguna grosera nos distancia del hecho artstico, a la vez de obligarnos a acercarnos a la obra, pues cada obra nos resulta repulsiva y bella, fugaz y dilatada en el tiempo de su narratividad, Ellis nos impone reflexionar sobre la veracidad de su imaginario, sobre su posible concrecin fsica, su posible realismo. Nuevas obras stas de Gerard Ellis, que estn en el lmite de la violencia visual obscena y el misterio sugerido de lo siniestro; lo cual les confiere sabidura y seduccin, lo cual las signa como terriblemente actuales, colindates con lo real, pero sacadas de la documentacin casi obsesiva de un mal sueo; pero adems, en el transcurso de un corto plazo de tiempo el artista no ha bajado la guardia en cuanto al perfeccionamiento de su dominio tcnico.

Dotes que hoy da, colocan a Gerard Ellis, como una joven promesa artstica (esa frase tan manida llena de esperanza y espectativas futuras) que va cumpliendo lo prometido, en el transcurso de lo que conocemos como su precoz carrera, y esa promesa viene dada en el superarse a s mismo en cada paso que da. Y ste paso, este nueva serie, esta nueva propuesta expositiva, de feroz actualidad; es una de ellas.

Omar-Pascual Castillo
Granada, Espaa.
abril 2008

English Version____________________________________________________________________________________________

NATURE VERSUS ANIMAL VERSUS HUMANITY:
notes on the work of Gerard Ellis

The work of the young Dominican artist Gerard Ellis (Santo Domingo, 1976) start from an easy premise of visual registries that simulate to simplify the glimpse in its chromatic reduction and in the composition fitting of its scenes; however, it is a work that advances in its complexity immediately as soon as the glance manages to stop more than a second before it.

It is in this thoroughness where we discovered that " this " (his work) is not only the slip of a quick drawing resolution that illustrates a Dali's dreamlike universe, where the blot becomes figure and the figure stains in a narrative time that disappears and shouts its name in a distant whisper.

No, indeed this easiness, his work is not.

The Gerard Ellis' works that I know, have born and continue being born in the Post-Medial Era of Science Fiction, cable TV and Internet and the virtual reality; move around the metaphor of certain analytical symbolism that spins around the idea of the original sense of the animals, their pristine sense and how the human being has taken it away, humiliating their nature, and the transformation of the relations that the human beings have with these animals, while we coexist with them, or while we avoid coexisting with them; it is to say; we are in a bilateral relation of enmity. That is, while this relation is and it is pronounced openly as a relationship of obvious reference to the Dominant Power.

And here in this reverberation of analogies, metaphors, reflective fiction or speculative diatribes of the Human-Animal friction: Ellis found "a gold bullion" where to investigate even when they contradict themselves, support, or juxtapose both natures.

Although in his series of dogs drawn in a detailed and virtuous B&W over spaced snow-covered backgrounds, or neo-pop plains, the artist suggested humanoid references to vital attitudes of the domestic dog, where the human being was transmuting obedience in a submissive war weapon, monitoring, and control; in his present work, Ellis competes in a direct relation to the animal, this time, no longer domestic (an owl, a serpent, cybor-dog, among others) with the man.

Equipped with a dramatic quality that could well be read like " epic proposals ", loaded with certain mythological scenes happened within the framework of each one of works, where the unreality of the plastic movement of each one of them speaks of speed and stillness, paralysis and aggression, being the diachronic dichotomy of the mental movement of the spectator, who dictates the laws of this new production of the artist. In an aesthetic that without rudeness distances us from the artistic fact, simultaneously, force us to approach the work, because each work is to us repulsive and beautiful, fleeting and expanded in the time of its narrative, Ellis imposes to us to reflect on the " veracity of his imagery ", on its possible physical concretion, its possible " realism ". These new works of Gerard Ellis, are in the limit of the obscene visual violence and the suggested mystery of the sinister; which confers them wisdom and seduction, which terribly signs them as current, " neighboring with the real thing ", but removed from the almost obsessive documentation of a badly dream; but in addition, in the course of a short term of time the artist " has not lowered the guard " as far as the improvement of his technical mastery.

Qualities that nowadays, places Gerard Ellis, as a " young artistic promise " (that well-worn phrase full of hope and future expectations ) that is fulfilling which was promised, in the course of what we know as his precocious race, and that promise comes given in surpassing himself in each step he takes. And this step, this new exhibition, proposal of the cruel present time; is one of them.

Omar-Pascual Castillo
Granada, Spain.
April 2008

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Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery Miami presents “Crossroads”, the first ever solo show in the United States of an important emerging young artist, Gerard Ellis, on May 10th, 2008, during the Gallery Walk in Wynwood Arts District.

The artist, who is of Dominican origin and based in New York, will be presenting ten unpublished works, including: “Good Companion” (39.5 x 39.5 in, 2007), "Haunted Boy" (48 x 60 in, 2008), "Night Watch" (39.5 x 39.5 in, 2007), and others.

With his awarded participations in the Contest of Young Painters of the Casa de Teatro (1996, 2001, 2003) and the 20th Annual Art Contest of E. Leon Jimenes (2004), as well as his excellent show in the 22nd National Biennial of Visual Arts (2005), Gerard Ellis has emerged with an artistic personality and a pictorial body of work which constitute an authentic surprise in the context of Dominican painting in the last five years. Says Amable Lopez Melendez, Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, "his existential empathy with the medium and his systematic attention to the resources of art result in an impeccable record within the pictorial space. In these areas, we access a fragile and mutant imagination that brings us to new quotidian mythologies indicative of this prosperous moment of the feast of Cyborg, such as the domestic paraphernalia and convenient technologies that allow us the globalizing matrix of vanity—volatile, flammable, alien, hallucinogenic folklore of postmodernity."

Of Gerard Ellis' recent work, curator Omar-Pascual Castillo remarks that it is “a body of work that has been born and continues to be born in the era of science fiction, cable TV and internet, and virtual reality; it moves about the metaphor of a certain analytical symbolism that spins around the idea of the native sense of animals, their pristine sense and how the human being has taken it away, humiliating their nature, and the transformation of the relationships that human beings have with these animals, while we coexist with them, or while we avoid coexisting with them.”

Ellis' works can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA), the Centro Leon Jimenes (Santiago, Dominican Republic), and the Colleccion Marcelo Nabona (Panama), among others.

The exposition will be open to the public until July 30, 2008.