The first time I met Fabricio Suarez, he was giving an Artist talk as part of a group show at Novado Gallery in Jersey City. I had seen his work earlier that evening, and when he began to speak at first I was surprised that he was the Artist who had created the paintings, because though he was very serious about the work, he seemed to be a much younger man than the one I would have expected had painted the images because there was such a darkness in them, an apocalyptic vision and also decay mixed with a feeling of being almost forlorn or lost or somehow wartorn and filled with strife. When I saw him again at the 14C Artfair and told him how much I liked his work and how beautiful it was, he seemed genuinely surprised as if he didn't fully know how talented and gifted a painter he is. I told him that I'd like to visit his studio and see more of his work and talk for a blog post, and then I ran into him at Prime Gallery when he had a few pieces in a show there and we did have a chance to talk a bit more. He told me he was moving his studio but that when he was more settled we could set a time for a visit, but with schedules and a weather and life, though we'd occasionally follow up with each other we hadn't had a chance to meet again until one day last year when I was walking down Mountain Road in Jersey City Heights, a favorite place of mine, I saw him with his easel, setting up for painting Plein Air. I asked him if I could photograph him that day, it was such a lovely and inspiring sight for even a regular day and especially during the times we were living in when people were not going out of doors much and though Artists I know were creating, there was a feeling of heaviness over so many people's lives. But there was Fabricio, finding a place to paint on the hillside, and I began to see him there fairly regularly as I took long walks at different times of the day, both of us trying to catch the beautiful light that shines over the buildings of Hoboken and further beyond to Manhattan in the distance, making buildings at times golden and at times rosy as the clouds and sun change hue.
On one of my walks, I asked him if I could see what he was painting. I don't like to bother people when they're working, whether writing, thinking, painting, cooking or building, but I had seen a post of his on Instagram of a new piece and I was pretty sure that it was the one that was currently being worked on in his outdoor studio. When he showed it to me I told him he didn't need to stop working and I walked around to take more photographs. It was the one I'd seen and it was stunning, a view of the hillside overlooking Hoboken and the Manhattan skyline with the sky showing a range of colors that I knew so well from so many walks in that favorite spot and the many times I'd tried to capture it in photographs. The piece is on my wall now, and I treasure it. When I picked it up from Fabricio he had added in the full moon that had been rising in the early evening sky on one of the last days he had gone out to finish the painting, and the addition was a very special and meaningful one for me. I try to photograph the full moon each month, and often I find myself on that hillside in just that place looking for it.
Originally from Uruguay, Fabricio attended the School of Visual Arts and received his BFA in Fine Arts and Illustration there. He describes his current studio practice as Abstract Baroque, with surrealist paintings that bring that darker and more moody tone to compositions that consist of traditional European portraits and landscapes that have distorted imagery combined with spiritual elements of American savagery, in his words, "Where abstract brushstrokes acting as 'characters' form a narrative in the landscape. A basic exploration of relationships between impulsive mark making." He has been part of numerous group shows in New Jersey, New York and Los Angeles, and has done residencies at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City and Artists Off-The-Grid in Red Feather Lakes, Colorado. He has also traveled extensively and painted a great variety of landscapes throughout the United States, Europe and South America, and is also an illustrator, sculptor and avid plein air painter, focusing on the Urban landscape.
It seemed to me as I first saw the piece that he was painting on Mountain Road that there was something so much more peaceful about it than the other work that I had seen before. The pink of the sky, the reflections of colors on and shining within the windows of the buildings, the pale full moon rising just above at the painting's edge. It's a piece that I am so much enjoying the experience of, and although there may be layers of deeper meaning in his other work, this one brings me into the place that I know so well in a new way. As I view Fabricio's work, I am constantly finding new things to feel and see and explore. It's as if his own inner life is reflecting back out from his paintings and the life within the landscapes and portraits he paints reflect and converse with the Artist as new meaning comes to life.
Fabricio Suarez
On Mountain Road
Jersey City Heights, New Jersey
Blessings,
Jannie Susan
