Colour, as a powerful ingredient in Pedro Paricio’s painting, largely defines his large and dynamic canvases in a very defined manner. By combining elements from street art while paying homage to the masters, Paricio examines the role of painting and of the artist. Not one for adhering to fleeting fads in art, Pedro Paricio retains a deep respect for art that endures. He explores how an artwork can become an icon or transcendental, flying above fashions that do not last out the day. In studying what makes a work eternal, he enjoys learning from the masters, be they Picasso, Velázquez or Bacon:
“A work of art [that endures] is not only for today, it is simultaneously yesterday and tomorrow… Works of art are open and the spectator’s observation completes the image that will change with each gaze. Art is not something that is closed… a true work of art is alive. That’s why we can go to the British Museum and continue to appreciate those works because they’re still alive… maybe they originally spoke in a different manner, but they are still speaking. A true masterpiece will continue to speak for ever.”
Partly for these reasons, Paricio decided to leave behind his work in sculpture, installations and video art to dedicate himself entirely to the medium of painting. After studying at the Faculty of Fine Art at the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, he completed his studies, first in Salamanca and then with a degree in Fine Art from the University of Barcelona, graduating in 2006.
Pedro Paricio was born in Tenerife in the Canary Islands in 1982. Despite drawing incessantly as a child, he had initially decided to study Pure Sciences, when, only a few months before going to college, he changed tack completely to study Fine Arts instead. His love of science however, still remains a core interest: -
“Quantum physics fascinates me… there is much there at a philosophical and metaphorical level… I love Philosophy, and when I look at quantum physics at a poetic level, it’s that one thing can be something else at the same time. People believe that science is infallible but it isn’t… because it hasn’t yet arrived at a point when it can demonstrate everything… like the Higgs Boson…[“the God Particle”]. Before, they thought that the smallest particle was one type of particle, and now they believe it to be something else… so we have to be humble and accept that there are many things that we can’t yet explain… We’re all connected, because everything is energy, and like the neutrinos, we’re also connected… we know now, that just because it hasn’t always been demonstrated, it does not mean it doesn’t exist. That’s why I believe that the balance between science and global knowledge must never be lost… for instance, many tribes in the Amazon have the knowhow [to use herbs] to cure many diseases, and now, that’s where the pharmaceutical researchers go to learn.”
One of the most monumental works of Picasso has been a huge inspiration to Paricio, so he chose to study the iconic painting of Guernica:-
“What was Guernica? What do we have today? It was created at a specific time in relation to a war. There has been criticism… by socialist realists, that it was not clear or graphic enough, and yet, it has become an [powerful] icon of an expression of war that is universally accepted. But today with the internet, that might be impossible. People are unable to agree on anything. Imagine if someone told you that there is painting that has just been created that will become an icon… by tomorrow you would have received over 500 messages on twitter disagreeing with you, because the world has become fragmented… it’s imploding… become pulverized. So, when I stand in front of Guernica, I realize that a contemporary Guernica could only be created from many histories, not only one, because there are an infinite number of visions of the world… for instance, before we had just two [politically opposing] blocks, East versus West. Now, that no longer exists… now, we have millions of blocks, even within political parties. The cold war is no more… now there are millions of opinions all graded at the same level… as in Facebook … you could have someone claiming that the world is flat, and it would have the same value as the opinion of an astrophysicist who has dedicated his life to the study… because it is all based on the number of ‘Likes’.”
You could say that Pedro Paricio is a paint-aholic. His output has been huge. He had barely completed his studies when he held his first one- man exhibition at the ‘Espacio Joven de Salamanca’. He had a couple of years supporting himself with odd jobs, from art editing and curating to clowning at children’s parties. But, only two years later, in 2008, he was able to starting painting full-time and he has not stopped. His passion for art comes from a love of “Freedom from the structure of the mind and the computerized world” and he is interested in abstract street- pop art as much as in the more traditional masters. In his 2009 exhibition: ‘Digital Painting and After Francis Bacon’, he combined hard- lined, flat geometric shapes in primary colours with thick, tactile splattered paint on the canvases that veered from amorphous to figurative. He has also offered his understanding and interpretation of some famous paintings, usually with a great deal of wit, from re-working Vincent van Gogh’s sunflowers into ‘Flowers for a Martyr’, as well as Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’ into ‘Canarian Gothic’.
More recently, Paricio has held two monumental exhibitions at the Halcyon with ‘Shaman’ (2014), exploring the ancient shamanistic traditions of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and ‘Dreams’(2016) which became his fourth major solo show. His new show PARICIO- PICASSO is equally ambitious challenging the transcendental qualities of art, in this case with abstract and figurative elements.
“Who better to learn from than Picasso? But you have to be prepared so it doesn’t destroy you as Picasso is such a potent force ... The Picasso theme emerged naturally. That is because, for me, tradition has always been fundamental to my art. Both the knowledge and the respect for traditions, but here, I’m trying to bring it to the present and to the future.”
PARICIO-PICASSO
March 9th – April 24th 2019
Halcyon Gallery
144-146 New Bond Street
London, England W1S 2PF
United Kingdom
