PIFO Gallery is pleased to present Julio Rondo’s first solo exhibition at the gallery from 23 February to March 31, 2023.
Julio Rondo has constructed each work by enclosing a painted surface in a glass case with its own reverse side treated with acrylic and paint, which indicates the artist’s attempt to blur the boundaries of painting with bold strokes visible as distinct marks and unparalleled colors and shades. Although the marks are as vivid as being produced in an improvised way, they are meticulously executed by the artist with much careful deliberation: first, the artist built up with color on the backing behind the glass, then the color is reinforced on the glass using an overlay of fast-drying acrylic, sometimes scraped off again to produce a translucent texture. The color scheme designed by the artist goes virtually beyond the boundaries of human vision. With the dazzling reflective sheen of glass, it seems to be impossible for viewers not to induce hallucinations and immerse themselves in the world of Julio Rondo’s art.
The titles of Rondo’s paintings appear to be rather indecipherable, yet show a vague sense of
coherence, as evidenced in the titles such as “My Oblivion”, “Wait Until Tomorrow”, “Second Time
Around”, and “The Other Lazarus Girls”. In doing so, the artist seeks to not only recapture the past
and evoke memories from the past but also to subjectively grasp and preserve the present moments. With this, Rondo enjoys music listening while creating art in his studio. While composers use combinations of the seven musical notes to create melodies of various kinds, Rondo is skilled in retrieving memories of persons, events, and locations by sight.
Julio Rondo’s choice of color across time accurately reflects the visual experiences relived by people’s daily lives in society in the past decades. The artist has succeeded in capturing the collective emotions and personal experiences that are subjectively perceived and would otherwise be invisible. Julio Rando’s paintings have abstracted from the fragmented sensual experiences that are drawn on the artist’s constantly accumulated and filtered memories. Hence, Rando’s work can be said to be a “romantic abstraction”, which brings about a new form of perceptual possibility lingering between what is rational and what is sensual. Through the layers of paint constructed by Rondo, we see ourselves, we see our spirit, and we see the creativity of our own.
Julio RONDO, Germany, b.1952, Sontrondio, Spain. Julio Rondo immigrated to Germany with his parents in 1962, studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Germany under Prof. KRH Sonderborg from 1974 to 1980. Since 1989 Professorship at the Merz Akademie, Stuttgart, Germany, and studies in the USA 1997-1998, Since 2000 he lives and works in Stuttgart and Berlin, Germany.
Rondo works with acrylic and spray painted behind glass in a technique he has developed over many years. He pays particular attention to the phenomenon of involuntary emergence of memory. It is, however, not the recovery of the past as a figurative or narrative that is significant for the artist, but the "essence" of stored perceptions of people, events and places that surface in his compositions.
