Vicente Dopico-Lerner, Glory and Madness, 2004, Mixed media on canvas, 53 x 60 in. Rodríguez Collection Through works assembled in “After Chaos,” Vicente Dopico-Lerner (b. 1943) addresses his concerns about the origin of the universe. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, chaos was the origin of everything; it was the first god, the most ancient. The term ‘chaos’ comes from the ancient Greek Χάος translated as ‘a space that opens.’ It is understood as a fissure or crack between heaven and earth that opens up so that we may gain access to the mysteries of creation. That fissure is a metaphor for the tireless search for truth that has been the leitmotiv for almost all of the great discoveries a
Silvio Gayton, Santa Barbara, 2013, Mixed Media on canvas, 73 x 59 in. Rodriguez Collection. When I conceived of the curatorial concept for “Cosmogonies”, the current exhibition that assembles the creative works of Silvio Gayton and Vicente Dopico-Lerner, I took as a starting point every human being’s inherent desire to attempt to find answers relative to the origin of the universe and of the diverse phenomena that govern not only the physical and natural environment, but also the logic of the way in which society functions. The exhibition highlights the idea of the artist as observer and decoder of his environment, with the capacity to visualize, interpret, assimilate and filter external st
