Leonel Salguero
Liste Year
Year of Birth
Country of Birth
Presented by
2020
1989
Puerto Rico
Agustina Ferreyra
Through a wide variety of media, the work of Leonel Salguero (Cd. Obregón, MX 1989) is concerned with the tension and erosion between the ordinary and the unexpected, as well as the life of everyday objects. The simplicity of his execution and composition, along with his humorous and minimal approach to painting, drawing and sculpture, often results in a depiction of improbable and uncanny landscapes, characters and objects that are common yet unique, and highly emotional but subtle, often attributing anthropomorphic characteristics to things such as animals, tools, household items, vegetables, fruit ...
"My grandfather was a landscape Sunday painter, a Bob Ross disciple, and growing up in the 90's in Cd. Obregón, his paintings were the only art I was ever in contact with. For such a culturally deserted place, his effort and persistence made an impression - a subconscious impression probably, because I never really wanted to be a painter. I wanted to be a paleontologist. When I was 15 years old we moved to Guanajuato, a colonial town that had much more culture in comparison; museums, an art school. I met some people there who where into art and design and stuff like that. This was the first time I saw a life in art as a possibility"
Untitled (Flower), 2019. Oil on canvas. 25 x 20 cm (9 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches)
"I try to remain as permeable as possible when it comes to inspiration. Anecdotes, objects, imagined things, animals, memories, the internet, paintings, cartoons, feelings... they're all things that inspire me, but are also in some cases the motifs of my work. I treat all things as if they have the same weight"
"I'm interested in working <<with>> materials in order to better understand what being a human is or feels like, and the relations of "mutual shaping" we have with environmental stimuli and time. This is why painting as a medium interests me so much. Through painting, you can rapidly get to places the brain alone can't access".