Barrio Escalante, San José

Visits by appointment only

Schedule a visit (opens the scheduler)
Estudio Geometrico, by Omar  Rayo. A diamond suspended on a neutral ground immediately establishes a gravitational tension: the figure seems to balance upon a single vertex while the eye desperately seeks to stabilize its center.

Omar Rayo

Estudio Geometrico

Year
1995
Technique
Screen Print
Dimensions
45 × 45 cm
Status
Available
Palette
carmine red, carbon black, ivory white, ash grey
Brushwork
Silkscreen with crisp outlines and delicate shaded gradients that create the illusion of relief.

Curatorial analysis

A diamond suspended on a neutral ground immediately establishes a gravitational tension: the figure seems to balance upon a single vertex while the eye desperately seeks to stabilize its center. In that core, a series of ribbons with surgical edges cross, bend, and fold over themselves in a knot that defies the rigorous flatness of screenprinting. There is no randomness in the layout; each perpendicular turn responds to an interlocking logic where the surface appears to recess and project outward at once.

Color operates here with relentless parsimony. Two lateral blocks of crimson red, divided precisely into smaller quadrilaterals, anchor the flanks of the diamond and serve as planes of rest against the dizzying dynamic of the center. In contrast, the upper and lower zones unfold concentric sequences of black and white chevrons, whose alternating rhythm evokes the visual vibration of a louvered blind or a textile motif distilled into its minimal graphic expression.

Subtle gray gradients trigger the most powerful perceptual illusion. Applied along the margins of each white band, these soft airbrushed shadows endow the ribbons with an almost tangible bodily thickness, as though dealing with a low relief of folded cardboard. Light does not emanate from a natural source, but from the very arrangement of contrasts, forcing the gaze across a closed circuit where above and below seamlessly dissolve into one another.

This geometric weave does not seek to depict a preexisting object, but to erect a purely optical enigma. The calculated alternation between symmetry and offset turns the print into a continuous visual paradox, where cool technical precision resolves into a hypnotic and vibrating labyrinth.

Estudio Geometrico

Similar works

By subject, palette and style

Message the gallery on WhatsApp

Cookies

We use cookies to learn how the site is used and to show the gallery's ads on other platforms. They are only turned on if you accept them.