Dreams and Temptations

Marcelo Suaznábar

May 2012

To encounter Marcelo Suaznábar's work is to step into a world filled with symbolism, allegory and magic, in which his interest in the subconscious and his concern for the environment come together. Suaznábar grew up in the richly folkloric and religious culture of Bolivia, and is an internationally-exhibited artist who has been creating art since he was a child. Largely self-taught, Suaznábar uses recurring motifs to express human preoccupations with the passage of time, death, nature, sexuality, beauty, fear, mythology and spirituality.

His motifs include the egg, a symbol of nature's simultaneous strength and fragility; black-and-white checkerboard patterns representing the detrimental speed of progress; and clothing which resembles fur, feathers and scales as an illustration of humanity's connections with nature. Clocks set to 11:55 are another theme, conveying the idea that zero-hour approaches rapidly and there is not much time left to think about the path we are on.

Surreal, imaginative and psychologically deep, Suaznábar's paintings take the viewer on a journey of inquiry and discovery into the life of the mind and its relationship with the world we create.

Marcelo Suaznábar currently lives in Aurora and his work appears in public and private collections throughout South America, as well as Canada, the United States and Europe.