ARCOS No. 100
ARCOS 2001: Chiesa's first solo exhibit in three years, and the premiere of No. 100 in his Arcos series, shades of white on white.
…more than a line…a circle, the arcs of a parabola, or a hyperbola, or a figure…it is a longer but safer stretch, it allows us not to leap back from one point to another, but to go on.
A native of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, painter Wilfredo Chiesa has lived in Cambridge Massachusetts since 1980. He teaches and maintains his primary studio in Boston, though he has at times set up studio in Spain, Germany, and Italy.
Since completing his formal training he has held over twenty five solo exhibitions in galleries and museums in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Puerto Rico. He has also participated in the Sao Paulo Biennial, as well as the biennials of Ljubljana, Fredrickstad, Medellin, and Cuenca.
His many group exhibitions include shows in New York, Miami, Boston, Washington, San Juan, Santo Domingo, Seville, Ibiza, Catania and Venice. Chiesa has been a visiting artist at several academic institutions including the Fine Arts Academy of Guangzhou, China, and Ochanomizu University in Tokyo, Japan.
His works are included in public collections in the Americas and Europe. Chiesa is Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He lives in Cambridge with his wife and two children.
The artist uses mixed media, mainly oils and acrylics on canvas; the Gothic arch and the square are the two unifying elements of his work:
"It is for a formal pursuit that I came to the idea of the arch and the square.... The square is the most neutral of formats, it does not predispose any kind of image....The arch [marks]...the encounter of two circular shapes and moves upwards....An important issue in my paintings is gravity and how the painting...defines a space which liberates itself from the constraint of gravity.... The arch is also a form with a metaphorical nature. "
—Wilfredo Chiesa