Rogelio Manzo | THE SCARS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

Rogelio Manzo | THE SCARS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION

“I’m interested in chaos, accident and the harmony and beauty found within. In my work, I provoke the accident to later, during the creative process, embrace it looking for reconciliation and homeostasis. I force myself to create, then provoke the problem or demolish it to rebuild within it; during this forceful battle, I find harmony and beauty.
…our perception of the world and ourselves is grounded on explicit or implicit agreements in society. I’m instigating this conventionalism and exposing the viewer to a visceral discourse concerned with our own bodily integrity and mortality.” -Rogelio Manzo

For Rogelio Manzo, the practice of portraiture is more than a way to capture a likeness. His darkly compelling images of the human figure reflect a blend of cultural influences -as well as an underlying concern with the fragility of life-. In his work, Manzo seeks to reveal the character of his subjects as they are “forced” to be themselves. He goes beneath the body’s protective layer of skin, which registers all personal events that scar the human being to reveal their fragility and inevitable mortality.

“Through these works, I am exploring the different stages of our lives as human beings,” Manzo explains. “For me, the skin is not only our protective varnish against harmful exterior forces or the medium with which to be touched and caressed, but it is also where we register all of our personal events that somehow had touched us enough to scars us.”
Manzo studied architecture while simultaneously making an informal study of painting. But he found architecture “too strict.” So in the following years, he brought his architectural and drafting skills to play -working in that field to earn a living- until, eventually, he made the welcome discovery that a full-time commitment to his passion for art was, in fact, a viable career choice.
Although Manzo has been developing his technique and exploring portraiture for about fifteen years now, he “will never stop exploring portraiture”, as he ensures us, he has been working on other subjects and areas that interest him, “I’m a pragmatic artist, I’m always curious of finding new ways in trying to make sense of my reality” he states.

Manzo’s brush with architecture inadvertently yielded his unusual choice of materials – resin panels designed for use as interior wall treatments, as well as metal panels (copper, aluminum, stainless steel), synthetic paper, fabrics, resin, etc.; and also traditional materials like paper and canvas and metals like bronze, copper, and aluminum he uses in sculpture-. He likes to play with different techniques and art types to make them work together like edging, screen-printing, oil painting, image transfers, stitching, ceramics a sculpture, video and art installation, etc. He produces an assemblage of multidisciplinary techniques that transcend typical visuals trying to find new ways of visual deciphering.
On his bi-dimensional work, for instance, he manipulates the panels, sanding and preparing them to accept transfer images as well as paint, and adding layers of silk and other fabrics.

“In our society, we tend to forget our dependence on organic life, we seem to become more synthetic or artificial as our technology and development advances, we forget how fragile we are.” -Rogelio Manzo

He has experimented with all these materials, eventually hitting on a combination that allows a light-infused and reflective surface to mitigate the dark imagery. In most of these works, Manzo places the figures in the foreground with rarely a sense of an environment. Thus, the viewer is forced to focus on the Cubistic fragmented visages and figures that are painted with an expressionistic fervor. The surfaces of these oil paintings range from thick impasto to thin washes, with areas of the background is left bare. This treatment adds to the sensation of his subjects being flayed to reveal their innermost feelings; the artist has great freedom to “let the painting develop by itself,” he explains. Because of the slow drying of the oil medium, Manzo works on as many as five paintings at the same time.

“The process is relatively complex, and it has taken me quite some time to be able to understand the materials I use.” -Rogelio Manzo

Currently, the artist is exploring sculpture installations and art-object works, with specialized help on mechatronics and biology engineering; he is using bio-technical instruments and equipment to give life to what could be considered intelligent art installations: micro cameras, sensors, fiber optic lighting, electro-valves, precision air and hydraulics pumps, -and computer programs that act as the brains-, work in unison to conjugate an organic yet artificial conceptual art piece. In these developing works, Manzo is exploring the mystery of organic life and our relationship with it.
He uses precision programmable pumps that pulsate out streams of liquids like oils and purified water through flexible tubes visually imitating communication between organs and elements, air pumps to imitate pulsations, recorded sound effects, etc. Then he interprets these apparatuses as complex artificial yet organic lifeforms that remind us of our own fragile organic bodies and of our dependence on organic life.

Read the full article in Art Market Magazine Issue #64