Ardex Gallery

By Mia Saavedra

Ardex Gallery is a newcomer to the Coral Gables art scene. Having opened its doors in April of this year, the gallery exhibits the work of a variety of different artists; painters mainly, although many of them probe into installation work as well. All of the artists currently represented by Ardex Gallery happen to be Cuban, however, the gallery is not focused on solely representing Cuban artists. In its last exhibition, Luis Rodriguez’ Status or a possible skyscraper to grab the clouds, the artist used mixed media to comment on capitalism. Of interest is Desencuentro, a series of 6 cardboard panels with the presidents seen on U.S. currency illustrated over layers of paint and texture. The piece paints a dark picture of the U.S. system and comments on the nebulous nature of capitalism and its leaders.

Like Rodriguez, Fernando Garcia’s work is also dark, but captures a nostalgic essence. Images of women from the Art Deco era are prominent in this painter’s work, and he achieves a worn, vintage look by layering paint and varnish, then sanding down each layer so that the image degrades. The results are paintings that are locked into an era that is difficult to pinpoint, yet look polished and refined. Lazaro Sigler is another artist represented by Ardex. Sigler’s charcoal drawings animate industrial objects such as wheels, parking meters, and sprinklers. With a background in mechanical design, Sigler’s study of these objects translates into a tangible and approachable appreciation of these items.

The other artists at Ardex Gallery are on the opposite end of the color spectrum, many using bold, bright colors and textures. Pedro Vizcaino’s vivid paintings are infused with a pop-art aesthetic. Alonso Mateo’s pieces are highly saturated in color and display items that are representative of consumer culture, such as meticulously detailed still lives of Cartier rings, and portraits of purebred dogs. Octavio Guinart’s colorful and detailed oil paintings have been described as “real - surrealistic”. Guinart composes narrative landscapes, and tells stories that range from life in exile from one’s homeland to the terror that hit the U.S. on 9/11.

Ardex Gallery’s December exhibition features the work of the youngest painter represented by the gallery - Ariel Tejera. Tejera is an impressive painter whose Dali-esque work evokes dreams and fantastic landscapes. You get the feeling that you are traveling through the artist’s memories; transported from one point in his life to another with each piece. Writer Jose Montes states, “ Muses have never been very faithful, but Tejera has succeeded in becoming one of the few exceptions to their steady preference”. The exhibit entitled Tejera’s Way, brings these muses to life with a series of finely crafted paintings and installations. Tejera expands on his surrealist style, and creates nostalgic paintings full of loss and contemplation. Each piece has a centralized focus, usually a door or a square that leads the viewer into another realm of Tejera’s world. In Dedicatoria para una adolescente (Claudia) (Dedication for an adolescent), a young girl’s face looms sadly over a white canvas while underneath her that canvas is torn to reveal a placid lake with a vase of yellow roses floating languidly on the body of water. Likewise in Màs que tres velas para Alejandro (More than three candles for Alejandro), a little boy sits on a wooden vanity, looking back at an open door frame at a seaside landscaped behind a sheer red curtain. The little boy’s legs are cut below the knee and he is anchored to two white birds flying below him. Whoever the young boy is, his presence is striking. He, like Claudia in Dedicatoria para una adolescente, reaffirms Monte’s statement on Tejera’s relationship to his muses: they faithfully hold fast to the artist’s imagination and lead him to create work that is not only in their likeness, but loaded with sentiment.

Tejera’s Way opens on December 1st during the Coral Gables Gallery Walk night held on the first Friday of each month. The exhibit runs until December 31st, 2006.

Ardex Gallery
506 Biltmore Way
Coral Gables, FL 33134
786.552.7339
www.ardexgallery.com