Chenco

Chenco was born in Cartagena, Colombia. It was in Colombia that Chenco’s formal education blossomed. With a degree in Fine Arts, Doctorate in Law and Political Sciences, summa cum laude School of Law from the University of Cartagena. Then Chenco finished his formal studies with a degree in Special studies in psychology of art and psychology of mental illness, School of Medicine, Universidad de Cartagena. After painting for many years in South America moved to the United States and currently lives in West Broward, Florida. Much has been written about Chenco’s work. A fellow painter Abdon Romero says of his friend: “His painting is , and always will be, sincere; he does not show us anything that he has not known or lived. His are a rebel’s paintings: he does not look or paint like anybody else I’ve known or studied. Some artists go through life trying to say things their way. This particular way of saying things is what makes them recognizable and distinguishes the work of a true artist. I do not intend here to make comparison with other painters because I sincerely believe that neither I nor Chenco would be comfortable about it. Besides, I already said it: he does not look like anybody else. Being an artist, I am familiar with he inner struggle, the whirlwind of feelings and ideas, the overwhelming need to say something that we do not even know what it is. But the problem does not end there, because the way of saying it, in this case, is as important or even more important that the need to say it: that is style. Chenco not only has his own style; it is so unique that makes it almost impossible to leave followers behind. Chenco practices his profession with zest; each drawing and painting of his shows his commitment and his patience, the resolution of “saying something his way”. To accomplish this, he uses lines, which determine and circumscribe the shape, and colors, which contribute to feeling and volume. Lines and colors: one cannot talk about his paintings without touching on these elements, since here “drawing becomes painting and painting becomes drawing in a flawless ambivalence”. In general terms, an artist is a volume painter or a color painter, in Chenco’s case, “he is a color and draft painter” That is one of the reasons he is unique”. Carol Damian, Ph.D. the Associate Professor & Chair with the Department of Visual Arts at Florida International University in reviewing Chenco’s work said: “In paintings that draw their imagery and techniques from a personal, quite baroque, sensibility, Chenco’s dynamic subjects express his own response to life and his surroundings. It is an interpretative naturalism that relies on the real world for its components in what may be described as a minor image related in paint. We, the viewer, are invited to look at this mirror image, but we must also determine what side of the mirror we are on, and what side is the subject. Chenco’s technical diversity is entwined with the complexity of his subjects; one compliments the other. Using not only a cacophony of colors, patterns, geometric shapes, dot, and signs, but varied surface textures, he imbues every work with a dynamic vitality that reflects life’s experiences, if only as he understand them. He must see the world through that enigmatic mirror that preoccupies so many of his subjects. Perhaps it is his erudite education, which included the study of law and psychology, which has provoke such an obsessive attitude about real life and compelled him to reconstruct his sources as vivid works of art. At the same time, could it be that the same psychological intuition has driven him to taunt us, the viewers, with a puzzling array of signs and symbols surrounding the surprising revelation of his forms and figures? Despite the recognizable aspects of his imagery, there is also something faintly disconcerting about his approach of the world around him. At times it appears witty and playful, while at other times there are elements of the sarcastic and destructive that supersede the capricious.Chenco has devised a language of symbols that is both disturbing and witty in the irony of its content and universality of its apprehensions. Flies emerge out of the mouths of his characters and dragonflies out of nowhere. The erotic competes with the exotic in an aesthetic technique that combines the luxury of gold with a combination of other media for rich painterly effects. With compulsive energy, Chenco fragments the human body into puppet-like creatures lacking the intellectual capacity to deal with their own reality. As he forces a reassessment of painting to address content that is more provocative than obvious. Chenco also confronts his audience with many questions, and few answers”.Chenco has participated in many exhibitions around the world.
Cool Slideshows In the hectic pace of our times, we've not given ourselves an opportunity to introspect and peel off our masks, unveiling our truths and realities. Through my works, my hope is to evoke philosophical changes, expand creativity, and evoke the freedom to observe, embrace and accept one other...unconditionally...