INCOMPLETE AFFECTIONS

For over two decades, Enrique Ciapara’s work has been marked by the construction of a gestural and intuitive painting practice, one that dismantles the traditional genres of painting by questioning the canon and the meaning of iconic works, especially those of the European tradition. Alongside this strategy, he weaves in glimpses of reality captured during his ongoing walks through the streets of downtown Tijuana, his hometown in Baja California.

During his two-month residency at lagos, Enrique explored a different visual narrative, an extension of his most recent body of work, Catálogo de Errores. In the words of Carlos Palacios, this pictorial expression is composed of “paintings of a highly expressive, almost lyrical abstractionism, grounded in color, in frenetic brushstrokes and marks, truly informalist.”

The five canvases we present today are infused with the cantina culture of Mexico City. They form an iconography of public and private spaces built through drifting narratives and layered images that reveal both fleeting impressions of Enrique’s inner world and an expansion of the artist’s studio practice.

Drawing from the narrative device known as mise en abyme, the technique of embedding a narrative within another similar or thematically aligned one, Enrique reassembles the cluttered vignettes seen in the city’s bars and taverns during his stay. These small “scenes,” found on backbars and shelves, are where photos, trophies, objects, and a myriad of seemingly disconnected elements accumulate, yet they are pure, living affections carried by the passage of time. They hold the essence of people, fleeting moments, joys and heartbreaks, gestures of strangers and familiars alike, each imprinting their cantina presence into the space.

This tactic is completed by the artist’s deeply personal sensibility. Within these canvases, Enrique weaves the epic of his grandfather, a painter from Mexico City, and recalls the lasting influence of a particular seascape painting that accompanied him throughout his life. This image became a pivotal presence, shaping and tracing the course of his artistic path.

With this memory as anchor, Enrique takes on another pictorial approach: one that is almost austere. Large color fields are traversed by sweeps of oil bars, acrylic washes, and deliberate drawn lines that outline objects like absent memories, now made whole, like a pictorial ouroboros, during his artistic journey through the heart of Mexico City.

olgaMargarita dávila
Chief Curator