Art exhibits make going to the office easier
Unlike Brian Dupont, Raphael Torres Correa doesn’t paint on metal. But the heavily worked, intricately layered canvases in his “A Dialogue With Landscape,” at Cross MacKenzie Gallery, glisten as if they’re metallic or ceramic — and dripping wet. The Cuban-born French artist, now a D.C. resident, is partial to blue, which suggests that his abstractions are inspired by the sea. Yet the paintings also include patches that resemble oxidized iron or steel.
Cross MacKenzie Gallery is known for ceramics, a medium for which Torres Correa has an affinity. His overlapping washes suggest a potter’s glazes, and he often stretches canvases on a tiled floor to paint, which ingrains patterns that remain in such pictures as the glimmering “Argument de Silence.” Whether evoking water with green-blue blends or fire with red and orange, the artist presents a vision of fluidity beneath hard-shelled surfaces.
Mark Jenkins