Oscar Capeche

 “This will be my sixth exhibition in Puerto Vallarta and the fourth at Galleria Dante. Each season I travel from Buenos Aires or Santiago, Chile to Puerto Vallarta, to exhibit most of the paintings I created during the past year. There is something very strong that pulls at me to travel seven thousand kilometers every year. It is not only the fact that my paintings find a good market in Vallarta, but more than anything it is the respect and the cordiality towards me and my work that I find here when I am present, that stimulates me to make this annual migration. 

 I am filled with with much happiness when confronted with the reaction of the spectator, both visitors and residents of PV. I feel that they connect very well with the original ideas and intentions of my paintings. My collection of personages are taken from my own experiences, but many are taken from the rich quarry provided by Art History. I paint these works, transformations and deformations that surge in me naturally, spontaneously and inevitably. My treatment of the images in my paintings is done with the greatest possible freedom. I am irreverent and bold with the sacred icons of Art History. I am also irreverent and comical with myself and in my self-portraits. I feel that all these liberties that I take help to make my paintings all that I want, with out compromising quality. I feel that my paintings are accepted, celebrated and valued by my beloved Vallartenses. I feel that they respect and are pleased by my free style of painting.      

I made the trip to Vallarta this year, with my wife by my side. My exhibit this year with gallery Dante, is a celebration for me and my family, as I have just recovered from a serious illness that took me by surprise in the last months of 2005. I did not know if I would be able to attend, and for this reason, even though my time in beloved Vallarta will be short, my time will be more valued, more enjoyed and most thankful for.  Therefore on February 24th, 2006 I invite everyone to join me, with my lovely wife, Cuca and my great friends, Claire and Joe Guarniere, whom I thank whole-heartedly for the opportunity to exhibit with them, year after year." 

Oscar was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1944. Since 1990 he has resided in Chile with his wife Cuca and thei children. Seven years ago he traveled to Mexico where he has since passed long periods of time in Puerto Vallarta. Since 1972 he has exhibited his art in galleries from Buenos Aires to Chile. 

His paintings offer a critical and ironic vision of certain human attitudes. He also intends to capture the synthesis of these situations by using loose brush strokes and gestures. In his new exhibition he plays with absurd and exaggerated contrasts and exposes some form of vanity that is locked in certain forms of life. In the end the subject matter is just an excuse to create significant images, not limiting himself to one theme. He has included a tribute to many of the masters: Lautrec, Rueben, El Greco, Rembrandt, Monet, Picasso. There is also a tongue and cheek series of wedding scenes, meninas, pinup girls, runway models, Turkish baths and anatomy lessons. Also included this year are lots or horses. These are his latest children and he hopes you enjoy them as much as he as enjoyed creating them. Oscar once told me he at one time had to paint to live, but now he paints what he loves and lives to paint.  

Many of his topics have preoccupied him over the last few years, a social commentary using character studies, as well as recreations of European works. In them the artist presents a mixture of ingenuity, sometimes acute, and subtle humor, soft and incisive at the same time. His art immediately appeals to our visual and tactile senses - delighting us with the baroque richness of it's technique, while sometimes it's content catches us smiling.  

Oscar acknowledges that after an extensive tour through Europe, he felt captivated by a type of drawing that borders on caricature. His characters, firmly rooted within a literary context, come from the social and cultural pages of local dailies and magazines, with their photos of "forced" poses of celebrities in the social circles.   

While the brilliant colors and the rich brushstrokes applied on the canvas appear to hide their dark side, Capeche's drawings are more satirical, in feeling as well as content. They are not simply borrowed from great masters such as Velazquez, Rubens or Picasso, but rather a "re-creation" of classical images and themes, translated into a new and highly personal pictorial language. Art professors love Oscar's point of view on the old masters and it is wonderful to listen to them as they discuss his interpretations.   

"I base myself on the real world, I am fascinated by observing the real world. There are things I cannot let pass, certain gestures, attitudes, the methods used by certain gestures of society that one way or another seemed funny to me, those postures so artificial. I take those figures and disarm them, then I rearm them, poor them, much worse than they really are. What I propose is that we look at those characters with a sense of humor. I am often ironic with myself. I am my most severe critic."     

Last year their son, Camilo accompanied his father to Vallarta to lend support to Oscar and meet his fans. Oscar's father was very ill and Cuca stayed behind to look after him. Oscar and Cuca are a delightful couple - so full of joy and life. After commenting many times that they were like newly weds on their honeymoon, Oscar sweetly says: "The only difference is that when we were on our honeymoon, we were two separate people now we are one."  They love the time they spend in Mexico.  Oscar and Cuca are special and I never tire of telling people that story.