Popular Chilean newspaper Las Últimas Noticias features our latest exhibition, Sweeter than Roses by Víctor Castillo, presented by Isabel Croxatto Galería in Santiago, in today's edition.
The publication is available today in all newsagents in Chile, and can be read online for free here (in Spanish).
Find an English translation below.
Nostalgic exhibition by Víctor Castillo at Isabel Croxatto Galería
VINTAGE EROTIC STARS ARE REJUVENATED WITH THE HELP OF CELEBRATED CHILEAN ARTIST
World-renowned for his disturbing characters with sausage noses and empty eyes, the US-based painter now presents a series of sensual black-and-white photos from the 1960s and 1970s, which he has intervened with acrylic and ink.
Private collection. 'Eroticism is a subject I had pending for a long time, and this project is my first serious approach to it', Víctor Castillo says, who has not stopped garnering acclaim with his twisted aesthetic inspired by American cartoons from the 1940s. For his new works, he used images from his private collection, taken by prominent photographers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Tattoo simulacra. From his home in Los Angeles, California, Victor Castillo explains that the works now on show in Chile came about as a result of the quarantine imposed by the pandemic. 'The time I spent locked up in the house and the studio provided the perfect moment for introspection', the artist explains, who dedicated those claustrophobic months to capturing his usual creatures (all of them cartoonish and many of them zoomorphic) on the bodies of sensual women who appeared in erotic photos from half a century ago. 'My characters now wander in the form of simulated tattoos on the skin of the models', he asserts with satisfaction.
Refreshing pause. Used to include elements of social and political satire in his paintings, the artist notes that his work with the erotic prints serves as a temporary breather from these recurring preoccupations. 'This series is a necessary and refreshing distance from the contingent critical issues that overwhelm us', the exhibitor states, who anticipates that he will soon take his investigation of painted bodies to reality. 'I am already arranging dates with a professional photographer and with famous porn stars who have willingly agreed to participate as models in this project', he anticipates.
