José Lerma : Dialogos: Frieze New York 2020

In this series of works for the Dialogos section, Josè Lerma (b. 1971, Seville, Spain) is, through economic, painterly execution, foregrounding background characters into central iconic figures.  His style is concise, typical of the way physically small and unimportant characters were depicted in large canvases. He is blocking with a few strokes to create a general impression of a person.

Lerma takes the style of the physically marginalized and makes it central to the plot, scaling the subjects into imposing, larger than life figures. These painterly and gestural works have masterful and undeniable materiality and tactility. The actual materials used in their making are decidedly blue-collar and were carefully chosen by Lerma to represent the construction industry, a primary employer of the Hispanic population of this country.   The supports are standard wood doors, the canvas is burlap or upholstering fabric, and the paint thickened with fillers available in most hardware stores.

The Images in these canvases and wallpaper are all based on Spanish or Latin American paintings from the 15th through the 19th centuries in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. It's a compact cartoonish rendering of every painting in the east corridor of the old wing of the museum. The works in this space are part of a larger project in which Lerma is making a drawing of every painting in the old wing and repainting every Spanish/Latin painting in the collection. These works are representations of a more significant idea of representation, equity, and proportionality. 

Lerma is a Puerto Rican/Spanish painter and installation artist who lives in San Juan and Chicago. Lerma's practice is rooted in an investigation of painting. However, the final product usually results in elaborate installations that incorporate everyday items such as office materials, musical instruments, and home furnishings. The work collapses the historical with the autobiographical, becoming part art history, part personal mythology. Lerma's recurring themes include the tension between the heroic and the pathetic, as well as the rise and fall of significant figures. Lerma (b. 1971, Seville, Spain) earned his Master's in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Wisconsin, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has exhibited extensively, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo San Juan, Puerto Rico, among many others.

José Lerma (b. 1971, Seville, Spain) earned his Master’s in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Wisconsin, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has exhibited extensively, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo San Juan, Puerto Rico, among many others.