SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.- The San Jose Museum of Art presents "Tino Rodriguez: The Darkening Garden/El Jardín al Anochecer," on view through Sunday, July 13, 2003.
"The undeniable beauty of Rodríguez’s luminous color seduces our senses, while his bizarre and sometimes disturbing imagery compels us to consider the darker aspects of human nature. Theatricality and spectacle abound in these paintings, yet their narrative import is never specific. Like a latter-day Symbolist, Rodríguez seeks meaning in the enigmatic depths of his own mutable and often irrational psyche." -Dr. Susan Landauer, Chief Curator, San Jose Museum of Art.
Tino Rodríguez’s highly detailed, intimate paintings offer a glimpse into a magical world that we might otherwise only encounter in our dreams. Tino Rodríguez: The Darkening Garden/El Jardín al Anochecer, the first solo museum exhibition for the emerging San Francisco-based painter, will be on display at SJMA from March 1, 2003 to July 13, 2003 in the Paul L. Davies Gallery. The exhibition will include nearly 40 exquisite small-scale paintings, the smallest of which range from 5x7 inches to only 2x4 inches.
Richly colored and scrupulously composed, Rodríguez’s work reflects the formal influences of Renaissance panel paintings and the deep impact of the Catholic Church that the artist experienced while growing up in Mexico. His hyper-realistic, meticulously detailed paintings overflow with mysterious figures situated in unconventional settings such as fanciful imaginary gardens and exquisitely decorated interior rooms rendered in the jewel-like tones and gold leaf found in medieval manuscripts.
Allusions to religious martyrdom and lyrical, imaginary dreamscapes form the thematic basis of Rodríguez’s imagery. Pristine scenes of carnal savagery, sometimes overlaid with allusions to sado-masochism, illuminate Rodríguez’s parallel revulsion and attraction to religious retribution and fascination with ancient forms of ritual sacrifice. His paintings are populated with fairy-like creatures, reliquary objects of devotion, and sacred figures such as saints, virgins, and half-human, half-animal angelitos. Well-versed in philosophy, Greek mythology, and world religion, the dark poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Genet, Georges Bataille, and William Blake also inspire Rodríguez’s work.
Rodríguez’s work often delves deeply into issues regarding human sexuality, and his self-portraits might be considered emotional confessionals of his own personal experiences. In many of his paintings, sexual suffering and salvation go hand in hand, reflecting the painful duality of growing up as the only gay son in a family of six boys and three girls, in a highly traditional, Mexican society. "I am fascinated by the complexity of human sexuality, transformation, longing and transgression," states Rodríguez.
Born and raised in Guadalajara, Rodriquez’s first encounters with art were in the Catholic churches of Mexico. In 1990, he attended the Sorbonne in Paris and then moved to California, where he continued his study of art. He earned a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1994 and a MFA from the University of Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1997. His work has been shown in numerous group and solo shows in galleries and art institutions in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, including the 1999 exhibition Bay Area Now 2 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
The Darkening Garden/El Jardín del Anochecer is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with an essay by SJMA Chief Curator Susan Landauer.