By Joan Lluis Montane
Published in the catalog of the exhibition, Villarroel, Works at Rina Bouwen Art Gallery, Madrid, Spain. Printed by Lom Editions, Santiago, Chile.
Hector Villarroel’s most recent production is in line with his latest works wherein the artist revels in the depths of abstraction, searching for matter, its unpredictable moorings and connections which, refusing actual representation, can nevertheless be brought into being in the reality of the virtual.
A perpetual traveler, the Chilean artist is always on the move: Santiago, Chile, Barcelona, Madrid, Brussels and New York. Villarroel is concerned with conveying to spectators a message anchored in the abstract realm. This, in order to be in perfect balance with the reality of matter as it is fleshed into canvas.
His painting is determinant. It revels in the realm of the non-shape, of mass and matter, and in hinges upon the presence of oils for their energy-shedding and layered essence, for their power to conjure up opacity and superposition; all of these indispensable to take audiences into a journey through and across continents, seas, oceans, shores, cities and structures of feelings.
Villarroel is an artist who resists momentum. He carefully probes his work, lingering on structures of feelings which can push his work beyond the fabric of everyday life. Clearly, he is an artist who is connected with ancestral inspiration that comes from understanding other cultural realities.
Villarroel paints in serenity and truth, and both originate from a frantic creative process which is carefully thought through. In this process, the artist moves on, letting layers dry one after the other, until he reaches the precise nuance, the desired chromatic superposition and the disposition of matter. In Villarroel’s world, this is poetical allegory.
To the artist, matter is his bridge with the outer world. It is here that he searches for variations, playing with matter and its interstices as tricksters play with strategic transformations in the process of aesthetic creation.
