Visiones de Panamá June 7 - July 12, 2008 Latin American Masters gallery presents the first solo exhibition in the United States for Panamanian artist Silfrido Ibarra. The gallery will host a reception for the artist on June 7, from 6:00 – 8 pm. The paintings will be on view through July 12, 2008. Painted from memory, seen through the lens of the artist’s well-ordered imagination, Ibarra’s paintings eschew the cold, hard realities of the natural world to become idealized visions of secular Eden. Ibarra’s delight in botanical forms is reminiscent of the tropical fantasies of painter Henri Rousseau, an artist whose jungle imagery was largely inspired by frequent visits to Paris’ Jardin de Plantes. Like Rousseau, Ibarra is a city dweller who, despite physical proximity to the Panamanian jungle, lives in a world circumscribed by the realities of our modern, urban environment. Ibarra’s paintings delight in a world where botany reigns supreme. The abiding feeling of Ibarra’s jungle paintings is meditative, bathed in quietude, a welcome respite from the clamorous contemporary world. |
