Victor Castillo – Restless and Wild

Victor Castillo’s pop-surrealism paintings include characters who look like hybrids of dolls, puppets and children. They have sausages for noses, and thus have an air of Pinocchio about them. The mask-like faces, with dark holes for eyes, conceal identity but do not hide their expressions as some of them gleefully go about their oft-nasty business. Though inspired by Goya and Velázquez, Castillo sets his players on backgrounds that are eerily flat, yet contain elements that are both baroque and romantic.Artist: Victor Castillo
+ heliumcowboy.com
via Art Moco

Restless and Wild runs from November 28 – December 31, 3009 at Helium Cowboy in Hamburg.

Restless and WIld

Sin in My Heart

In this show, “Restless and Wild”, Victor Castillo presents a remarkable range of work including a mural, ten works on paper and around twenty canvases. In these, Castillo presents atmospherically luminous landscapes evoking the images of idyllic postcards. Once again, the appearance is deceiving: The postcard idylls embrace a tragic-comic portrait of childlike cruelty. They uncover a wild, uncivilized side of human behaviour, with aspects of politics, sex and religion also playing a part.

Born 1973 in Santiago de Chile, Victor Castillo grew up in a conflict-riddled neighborhood during the dictatorship of Pinochet. His childhood was influenced by the politics and culture of the USA and Spain that has also affected his artistic process. He lives and works in Barcelona since 2004. Castillo’s art receives increasing international popularity. Until today, he has exhibited worldwide in group shows as well as solo in Berlin, London, New York, Barcelona, Rome, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Beijing, Shanghai to name a few.

heliumcowboy artspace presented Victor Castillo in Hamburg for the first time in 2007 in the group show “Iguapop!”, and then again in 2008 during the anniversary exhibition „5 years heliumcowboy artspace”.
Author: Isabel Abele
***
>>> artist website
>>> Victor Castillo at IGUAPOP gallery
>>> Victor Castillo at Merry Karnowsky Gallery, L.A.