José Pelletier’s “Rostros” at Ossaye Casa de Arte

José Pelletier’s “Rostros” at Ossaye Casa de Arte
Santo Domingo, November 4 2015

LLast Friday, October 30, art critics Marianne de Tolentino, Amable López Meléndez and Abil Peralta Agüero participated in the panel “Tribute to Ramón Oviedo”, organized by the Ministry of Culture in coordination with the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) and the Organizing Committee of the 28th National Biennial of Visual Arts – Santo Domingo 2015.

Art critic Delia Blanco, the curator of the exhibition, explains that in this exhibition José Pelletier achieves a visual synthesis between figuration and disfigurement of the subject in its most precise sense, as a century earlier the greatest vanguard masters, such as Picasso, the prime example of figuration and disfigurement, did to transform their portraits into true facial mazes.

She adds: “Pelletier, handles his portraits with great pictorial agility, that is, he does not limit himself to the anatomical boundaries, and he expresses himself with freedom in the brush and in the stroke, with a drive that is alien to figuration but which searches for it more through the gesture and color. In this sense, we have found in this series a gestural mood that remains faithful to the world of Francis Bacon in terms of movement and color, especially in the use of the pink color, and which is so obvious that we feel in some of the faces a visual tribute to the British master.”

María del Carmen Ossaye, Director, and Ángel Ricardo Rivera, Deputy Director of OCA, explain that Pelletier’s exhibit is part of the comprehensive program they have been implementing to maintain a line of creative thinking, and to promote art and culture through a series of lectures, workshops and exhibitions with leading national and international personalities, as well as a wide variety of publishing projects.

Pelletier was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He studied Plastic Arts at the National School of Fine Arts in Santo Domingo, where he graduated with a major in drawing and where he later taught Art Education. He has illustrated textbooks, including Nuevos cuentos puertorriqueños para los niños del mundo (antología), 2001 (New Puerto Rican Tales for the Children of the World (anthology), 2001.

His portfolio is extensive and includes solo and group exhibitions, participation in important competitions and biennials in the country, as well as receiving recognitions and awards at the national and international levels.

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