EDUCATION

Emilio Lobato’s paintings transcend their physical space to occupy a harmonious realm abundant with metaphor. Growing up in the vast and isolated landscape of the San Luis Valley, the artists’ childhood experience was transformed through the creative process into a quiet perfection of color and form. Reaching back to ancient cultures, Lobato retrieves the universal symbols of the circle, square and ground line to articulate a straightforward expression of the complex. Lobato’s penchant for pattern and the written word enlivens the painting’s surfaces with vitality and visual texture. Attendant to the concept of ‘duality,’ Lobatos’ compositions employ a masterful treatment of chiaroscuro and equilibrium. Flat forms in combination with an exquisitely composed palette destroy all attempts at illusion, revealing a potent authenticity.
Honoring the weavers of his Spanish ancestry, Lobatos’ new work revisits the ‘Blanket’ series and builds upon its tapestry-like foundation. With inclusions of text and cross symbols, the weft segments are painted the artists trademark colors: earthen reds, blacks and ochres. Smaller panel pieces are composed of collage and text patterns and emerge as sublime touchstones of the artists’ voyage through the creative process. Art, to Lobato, is an anecdote of the spirit and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its journey.