Jerónimo Elespe

Jerónimo Elespe works with printing, drawing and painting, and creates each piece for several months or even years. Drawing from autobiographical moments, his works move in and out of figurative and abstractive fields. Habitual scenes or portraits become dappled with gestural markings, or clouded with stains of color. Elespe is innately drawn to the relationship between reality and fiction, seeking to use his practice as a platform to chart the behaviour of memory and its potential blurring, or obscuring of the truth. Fragments of memoir can be found within the markings of each piece. Whereas some works are void of any recognisable form and trace the passage of time. Surface and materials are vital to Elespe. He works with woodcut, ink and pencil on paper, and he’s also experimented with oils on aluminium, each process uncovering further atmospheric potential. His style of painting echoes the delicate vitality of the Post-Impressionists, while the artist also cites the influence of writers such as Donald Barthelme and J. G Ballard upon his own construction of narrative structures. Working in a eponymous sombre palette, Elespe’s works function like subtle incantations that draw the viewer into his hallucinatory realm. ...

Founded by Pamela Echeverría in Mexico City, LABOR opened in 2009 working with artists whose creative processes are based on long term research. They have a strong commitment with the visions and concerns that their artists have towards the contemporary social/political context. They work with a mix of young and mid-career artists, both Mexican and international. With whom they work closely and assume an active role in the projects they develop. The work of these artists address topics such as value and exchange; economic systems and social structures; the exploitation of natural resources, the ethics of human behaviour, and the hidden political structures of society. ...