Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present MIMAMI POP, a solo exhibition featuring new paintings by Cuban artist Tomás Esson. This exhibition marks over 30 years since the artist first showed at the gallery in the early 1990s.
MIMAMI POP presents ten abstract paintings from the artist’s latest series accompanied by two vintage works spanning three rooms: the entry anchoring the show with two works utilizing collaged vintage ephemera of previous exhibitions and his emblematic talis symbology; the primary gallery showcasing a diverse range of medium- and large-format compositions; and the secondary gallery introducing a new smaller format painting size.
In recent years, Tomás Esson’s work has evolved to be more abstract with the less distinguished representation of physiques, honing in on interpretations of lines and shapes in the same dynamic style and bold assertion. His first venture into this approach was his Miami Flow series, which accentuated the technical aspects of his application and referenced his previous figurative works by blending commonly featured objects that viewers were still able to pick out, precisely the colors of human flesh, form, and interpretation of botanicals. Later works amplified the lively exertion of oil on canvas with dense applications, heightened velocity, and coloration.
Esson’s MIMAMI POP series further progresses this approach to painting, not referencing images but pulling pure expressions from his mind. This suspended state translates onto the canvas with layers of paint built out with energetic gestural motions capturing the essence at the core of all his work. In each work, a new palette of colors swirls and bends to the artist’s will. What sets MIMAMI POP apart from his previous series is its heightened sense of pigmentation – vibrant, even fluorescent hues merge against earthy ochre, browns, and flesh tones. Another element is the series’ use of centralized energy, the canvas laid bare at its edges, with a concentration of movement expanding and compressing from the core of the pictorial plane, creating a push-pull dynamic activation.
About Tomás Esson
Tomás Esson (b. 1963, Havana, Cuba) is considered one of the most important artists of his generation to have emerged in Cuba, and is a central figure in the 1980’s renaissance of Cuban Art. His first exhibition in Havana, A Tarro Partido II (with Broken Horn II) (1988) at Centro de Arte 23 y 12 was censored and closed by the Cuban authorities for citing grotesque representations of venerable icons of the Cuban Revolution, such as Che Guevara. Much of Esson’s work during the 1980s expressed critical questioning of the Cuban Revolution (1953–59), a project that nationalized and centralized the press, economy, and society instead of delivering the promised revolutionary socialist state. Esson participated in some of the most important exhibitions and biennials in Cuba and Latin America – his works later began to be exhibited and collected in Europe. In 1990, he left Cuba and moved to the United States. He currently resides and works in Miami, FL.
Tomás Esson’s work is housed in the permanent collections of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany; and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Monterrey, Mexico; among others.
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