Black and White Paintings
Painting No.9 2010-11
Black pigment print, and oil stick on Hahnemühle matte paper
17 x 29 inches; 43 x 77 cm
Originally conceived as drawings, Ortega now understands these works as interdisciplinary paintings. Inkjet prints—a format usually reserved for photography—are printed in total black, then treated with tape, pencil, crayon, and white-out. The completely black prints highlight a contradiction at the heart of photography: shadow is only capturable when there is light. The white elements in these works function under the symbolic order of geometric abstraction or constructivism, with the repeating gestures of lines, points, and spirals resulting in bleak, lunar terrains.
— Rob Goyanes
Selected Works
