8-color screen print
This new print by artist Jorge Pardo is produced for the occasion of Printed Matter + EXILE Books at NADA Miami 2021. As is typical of Pardo’s work, this silk-screen print is a meditation on the act of looking. Using 8 overlapping transparent inks to create a palette of 256 colors, Untitled is an accumulation of found images digitally layered until nearly unrecognizable. In this case, the image is composed of a Diego Rivera mural, studio and exhibition installation snapshots, a lightbox painting by Pardo, and an Alma Thomas painting. From there, the digital file is transferred onto paper where it is hand-drawn in colored pencil, then transformed into this multi-layered silkscreen. The final composite artwork is abstract yet representational, as it reorients the forms without the memory of what they represent.
Born in Havana, Cuba in 1963, Jorge Pardo’s artwork explores the intersection of contemporary painting, design, sculpture, and architecture. Employing a broad palette of vibrant colors, eclectic patterns, and natural and industrial materials, Pardo’s works range from murals to home furnishings to collages to larger-than-life fabrications. He often transforms familiar objects into artworks with multiple meanings and purposes, such as a set of lamps displayed as both sources of illumination and as freestanding sculptures, or a sailboat exhibited as both a utilitarian, seaworthy vessel and as a striking obelisk. Working on small and monumental scales, Pardo also treats entire public spaces as vast canvases. Recent projects include a site-specific commission for the University of Houston’s Public Art Program, 2021, and a solo presentation at the Museum of Art & Design at Miami Dade College, Florida open November 6 – May 1, 2022. Pardo’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Pinacoteca de Estado São Paulo, São Paulo (2019); Musée des Augustins, Toulouse (2014); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2010); among others. Paintings by the artist were included in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). Pardo currently lives and works in Mérida, Mexico.
