Emilio Legrand Vega

Curatorial Rationale

My exhibition is composed of artworks of landscapes which reflect different stages in my life. These works show a chronological sequence of locations that have importance to me in my life. These include different homes, memorable vacations, or more abstract interpretations of landscapes. Each artwork also represents a different art movement or style. The movements were matched to the landscapes based on conceptual, artistic, or visual factors. 

My work with the Comparative Study has influenced this exhibition as it sparked an interest in natural landscapes. Exploring Albert Bierdstadt and Niel Simone’s artworks opened my eyes to romanticism and surreal landscapes. These experiences helped me produce some of my works.

In my exhibition, I used a variety of media and art styles for each work. Firstly, I used graphite pencils to draw a valley landscape in “Tuscany Romanticism”. These pencils were used to show value, detail, and depth in this black and white work. The second media I used was color pencils in my work “Calle Kings Court Cubism”. The buildings I drew were cubist as I depicted different perspectives of the same object. These perspectives were differentiated with shading and altered the direction of coloring. I also used colored pencils in “Lake Tahoe Surrealism”, where I used and mixed a variety of blue, yellow, and pink colors to depict a beautiful sky and lake reflection. My third medium was acrylic paint. In “Villa Mercedes Minimalism”, I simply used the raw colors, whereas in “Norman Island Impressionism” and “Computer Background Photorealism”, I constantly mixed colors to create different shades. In the computer background artwork, I also used gloss polymer varnish to add a glossy effect to the work. My final medium was photoshop. In “Lake Tahoe Surrealism”, I used photoshop to add animals with unnatural sizes and positions to create a surreal effect. On the other hand, in “Notre Dame Photomontage”, I used many screenshots of the same location on Google Earth to create a photomontage inspired by David Hockney. My final medium was popsicle sticks and aluminum foil sheets which were cut and molded to create a 3D model of my senior lounge called the “Bohio”.

In my exhibition, I also incorporated different art styles for each work. The first artwork “Villa Mercedes Minimalism” had this art style, as the simplicity of minimalism correlates with the simplicity of my life as a child in my old home. For the second work, “Calle Kings Court Cubism”, I decided to use cubism as buildings, streets, and other structures make urban locations very geometrical. For “Norman Island Impressionism”, my reasoning for the use of the art style was different, as I simply used Impressionism as it is often used to show the effect of light on sky and water. For my fourth work, “Norman Island Impressionism”, I decided to use Romanticism, as romanticists admire nature and this landscape shows the beauty of nature. In my fifth work, “Lake Tahoe Surrealism”, I used this art style as I was inspired by Cloud Illusions by Neil Simone, a work I analyzed in my comparative study. In this work, the size and location of animals was used to create a confusing illusion of space, and I did the same in my own work. In my sixth artwork, “Computer Background Photorealism”, the idea of recreating a computer background was the main reason behind the use of photorealism. Lastly, in “Notre Dame Photomontage”, I used the art style to show an unclear vision of Notre Dame, which shows how my future in many ways is unclear. Finally, I used the 3D Model format for my “Bohio”, as architects often have smaller scaled models of buildings or structures. In this exhibition, conceptual and visual factors led to the use of different art styles for every artwork.

For my exhibition, I organized my artworks chronologically in a timeline-like fashion. They were set up in a horizontal line, with the landscapes going from left (past) to right (present and future). I also put the title, medium, size, and small descriptions beside each work.