Eduardo Portillo

Region: West

My work challenges the most formal of conventions—the flat surface on which a painting is generally created. I construct uniquely asymmetrical structures with varying edges, angles, and faces, creating sculpted paintings (or painted sculptures) that not only question the necessity of the rectangular painting but reject flatness entirely. Stretching canvas over the irregular, fluctuating structure results in undulations between elevated points of pressure, and fluid expanses of space. These topological compositions create shadows and highlights in which hue and tone are consistent, and the uneven, seemingly malleable edges, often painted in complementary colors, cast reflections on the walls. The modular works oscillate between adept formalism and conscientious spontaneity, revealing graceful craftsmanship through reformation of the shaped canvas. By utilizing the third dimension, this body of work expands into “real space,” celebrating the tensions between implied capacity and internal boundary. The pieces are activated by shape, form, depth, and color as well as by the angle from which they are seen. Each painting presents a different level of interaction and reaction between itself, the space, and the viewer.