JGM Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Exhibitions
  • The Artists
  • Press
  • About us
  • Contact Us
  • The JGM Review
Menu
  • Current
  • Past

Powerage: Juan Bolivar

Past exhibition
7 July - 7 August 2021
  • Images
  • Overview
  • Selected Works
  • Installation Views
Images
1/4
Previous
Next
Overview
Powerage, Juan Bolivar

'Popular culture and abstract painting are often seen to inhabit completely different worlds ... Bolivar brings these ideas together. In doing so he reminds us that the history of cartoons and comics runs parallel to the development of modernist abstract painting ... Both are essentially modernist languages.'

- Daniel Sturgis, 2021

ThE second solo exhibition of Bolivar's at JGM Gallery, which presents an ambitious new body of paintings and limited-edition prints, is titled after the 1978 album of Australian rock band AC/DC, and weaves together references from popular culture, cartoon imagery and art history.

 

Bolivar was born in 1966 in Caracas, Venezuela. These new works are informed by his memories of geometric abstraction and modernist architecture, experienced during his childhood,at the Central University of Venezuela designed by Carlos Raúl Villanueva, and placed in relation to cartoon imagery encountered at the same time.

 

As part of this exhibition's research, Bolivar looks at Italian early Renaissance painting ­(in particular the 13th and 14th century Sienese School) to feed into the decisions of placing cartoon images upon re-enacted American Color Field Painting, in particular the works of Barnett Newman, Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, and earlier examples of the European Avant-Garde - Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian and Josef Albers.

 

"This type of intertextuality reads at times like a far-fetched plot or absurd comedy involving Duccio, Snow White's Sleepy and Newman's 'zip' paintings," writes Bolivar about his new body of work. "The motifs in POWERAGE bring together comic strips and cartoons - the new forms of visual art that emerged in the 20th century - the modernist movement in Europe and Post-War Modernism in the US. These influences have created a rich and problematised zone where entertainment, popular culture and high modernism converge and overlap."

Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Download Press Release
Download List of Works
Selected Works
  • Juan Bolivar, Angel, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Angel, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Annunciation, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Annunciation, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Apostle, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Apostle, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Baptism, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Baptism, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Lazarus, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Lazarus, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Deposition, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Deposition, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Dionysius, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Dionysius, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Expulsion from The Garden of Eden, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Expulsion from The Garden of Eden, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Eight Station, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Eight Station, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Locust, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Locust, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Maestà, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Maestà, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Iconoclasm, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Iconoclasm, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Pinnacle, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Pinnacle, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Ascension, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Ascension, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Resurrection, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Resurrection, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Predulla, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Predulla, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, The Flood, 2020
    Juan Bolivar, The Flood, 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, The Plague, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, The Plague, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Hail, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Hail, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Darkness, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Darkness, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Cliff Edge, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Cliff Edge, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Entombment, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Entombment, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Gabriel, 2020-21
    Juan Bolivar, Gabriel, 2020-21
  • Juan Bolivar, Healing the Blind, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Healing the Blind, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, The Agony, 2020
    Juan Bolivar, The Agony, 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, The Way to Calvary, 2020
    Juan Bolivar, The Way to Calvary, 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, I Heart Albers III, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, I Heart Albers III, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, I Heart Albers II, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, I Heart Albers II, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, I Heart Albers I, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, I Heart Albers I, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Black Sabbath (after Albers 1963), 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Black Sabbath (after Albers 1963), 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Donington (after YAB 1990), 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Donington (after YAB 1990), 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Kiss (after Mondrian), 2019
    Juan Bolivar, Kiss (after Mondrian), 2019
  • Juan Bolivar, AC/DC (after Mondrian 1933) , 2021
    Juan Bolivar, AC/DC (after Mondrian 1933) , 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, AC/DC (after Malevich 1915), 2021
    Juan Bolivar, AC/DC (after Malevich 1915), 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Rush (after Noland 1961) , 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Rush (after Noland 1961) , 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Scorpions (after Noland 1961) , 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Scorpions (after Noland 1961) , 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Styx (after Louis 1961), 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Styx (after Louis 1961), 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Thin Lizzy (after Noland 1961) , 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Thin Lizzy (after Noland 1961) , 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Dionysius, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Dionysius, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Goofy and Barney, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Goofy and Barney, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Thomas, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Thomas, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Power Print, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Power Print, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, School of Rock, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, School of Rock, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Power T-Shirt, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, Power T-Shirt, 2021
  • Juan Bolivar, Albers (Red), 2020
    Juan Bolivar, Albers (Red), 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, Klee (Black), 2020
    Juan Bolivar, Klee (Black), 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, Piet Mondrian (Yellow) , 2020
    Juan Bolivar, Piet Mondrian (Yellow) , 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, Malevich (White) , 2020
    Juan Bolivar, Malevich (White) , 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, Gunta Stolzl (Silver), 2020
    Juan Bolivar, Gunta Stolzl (Silver), 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, Schlemmer (Red Oxide) , 2020
    Juan Bolivar, Schlemmer (Red Oxide) , 2020
  • Juan Bolivar, POWERAGE badge, 2021
    Juan Bolivar, POWERAGE badge, 2021
Close
Installation Views
Close

Related artist

  • Juan Bolivar

    Juan Bolivar

Back to Past exhibitions
Privacy Policy
© 2023 JGM Gallery
Site by Artlogic

24 Howie Street, Battersea, London SW11 4AY

+44 (0) 207 228 6027 | info@jgmgallery.com

JOIN THE MAILING LIST

Youtube, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Close

Join our mailing list

Signup