New Work | Black Soil Paintings | Carlos Fernández
We are excited to share two new black soil paintings by MÍRAME artist Carlos Fernández. Paisaje #11 and Paisaje #13 are large scale paintings from his black series, made with 80% black soil, 1% acrylic paint and 19% transparent gel acrylic.
Carlos Fernández lives and works on a farm in the hills above Santa Ana, on the western edge of San José. The land is his material, as well as his subject. The soil in these new paintings is sourced from these hills, as is the clay he sometimes mixes into his paint, rich with the same deposits that have sustained Santa Ana's ceramic tradition for generations. Spices — turmeric, achiote — are often applied directly to the canvas, reflecting his belief that pigment and food share the same origin. The resulting work carries the physical weight of his Santa Ana surroundings.
His influences are wide — Julie Mehretu, Francis Alys, Joseph Beuys — and his practice reflects that range: paintings, drawings, photographs, performances, all emerging from the same observational process he describes as beginning a garden. His works have been shown at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, MAC in Panama and Fuso in Lisbon, and his reputation internationally continues to grow.
Paisaje #11 and Paisaje #13 are built on a black ground, made from the dark soil of his farm deepened with a trace of black pigment, and both pull you into a world that feels nocturnal and dense — the forest floor, the understorey, a landscape observed from within.
Carlos Fernández, Paisage #11, Clays and Acrylic on canvas
Paisaje #11 features a dynamic composition of leaves appearing from the darkness of a forest floor, lit from an unknown source. The larger, main leaf forms appear as pale, natural shapes, flickering across the canvas against the black field below. They have a graphic quality but also feel organic, as though caught mid-movement. The darkness below is thick with smaller marks suggesting vegetation, the ground layer of a forest seen up close. Some of these smaller leaf-like shapes carry luminous highlights where the light catches them.
Paisaje #13 gives you more of the forest. The forms here are broader, as though you have taken a step back from the plants of #11 and the canopy has opened up around you. Large pale leaves and stems in cool greys and whites emerge from the same dense black ground, giving the feeling of standing inside a forest at night, eyes adjusting to the forms in front of you. Look closely and small flashes of colour appear in the lower portion of the canvas — prismatic marks scattered across the dark ground that are easy to miss but change the painting when you find them.
Carlos Fernández, Paisaje #13, Acrylic and clay on canvas
What the two black soil paintings share is a quality of immersion, not least because of their large scale. The more time you spend with them, the more the darkness opens up — textures accumulate, small marks become legible, and the density of the natural world Carlos works within becomes palpable on the surface.
These are bold, dark paintings, but the black contains none of the harshness of paint. With 80% of the surface made from the dark soil of Carlos's farm, the colour is organic and has a softness to it — a depth that comes from the earth rather than a tube.
There are few artists whose work is as completely integrated with their surroundings. His farm, his kitchen and his studio are essentially the same place, and the work shows that integration. What reads as abstraction in his black soil paintings is nature closely observed — the patterns, textures and colours of the hills he lives and works in.
Paisaje #11 and Paisaje #13 are both available through MÍRAME. Both are 120 x 160cm |
To enquire, contact Belinda at [email protected].
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