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Alchemist’s mind of artist Gustavo Charif

Posted: 06 Apr 2013 09:10 AM PDT

An Argentinian artist uses his work to engage with and explore the world around him.

IF there is one thing artist Gustavo Charif can't abide, it is dualism. Perhaps that is why his artworks, a veritable explosion of drawings, oils, acrylics and collages, are so intensely multifaceted.

"I am against dualism, the idea that everything has to be one thing or another. Why should we be stuck in a system? People should be able to see the different tones in reality, not just black or white," said the Argentinian artist during a recent interview at his exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Absolute Charif by Fuman Art.

Born in Buenos Aires, the 47-year-old painter, writer, filmmaker and musician has had his works shown alongside greats like Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, and has collaborated with the likes of Fernando Arrabal and Milan Kundera.

Having had his first solo show here in September during last year's Art Expo Malaysia, Charif stayed on for a three-month residency programme in Kuala Lumpur. As fate would have it, he fell in love with a Malaysian woman and has decided to make Malaysia his home.

The pieces being shown in Absolute Charif are all works created during his time here. Also part of the show are two works entitled Camouflage, inspired by sculptures by Pablo Picasso and Dali, where Charif has incorporated the images of these sculptures into his own paintings.

"Actually, I don't believe in the word 'creation'," asserted Charif when asked how comes up with his pieces. "What I do is not really create something, but rather, combine the experiences I see in my life. I take a look at the world, and a look inside myself, and combine both."

His art, he added, gives him a way of engaging and making sense of the world around him.

"I use painting to think, to explore myself, to understand the world," he explained.

Rich with details, Charif's works have more than a touch of the tongue-in-cheek about them, as they juxtapose familiar urbanscapes with surrealist fantasy images. For example, Nightmare Of A Beast, which is bound to elicit a laugh with its quirky image of a hamster dreaming of a giant-sized version of itself. Family Of Man, on the other hand, uses a familiar landscape outline, but fills the canvas with incongruous elements, like a dog riding a horse, a tree with what looks like playing cards as leaves, and a hill topped by a gramophone.

Yet, while the temptation is there to connect his works to well-known surrealists like Dali, Charif insists that his pieces are not located within any particular movement.

"In my paintings, I try to find the point where the objective and subjective disappear. For example, I don't think realism and surrealism are opposites of each other. Often, you will see the abstract, the classical, constructivism, imperialism, collage, pen and ink, all in the same painting. You could say, the aesthetic of my paintings is trying to catch that point where all reality becomes one; in Spanish, I would describe it as fundicion (alchemy)."

His work More Than Just Crunch, for instance, is a large, fascinating piece that combines a classical portrait with abtract, textured swirls of colour, alongside surrealist imagery, all set within a geometric grid. Like most of Charif's works, close examination reveals a wealth of detail, such as the plastic action figurines embedded within the paint, or remnants of a cereal box making up the collage.

Similarly, his Rotten Mondrian evokes the famous Dutch painter Piet Mondrian's grids, but antithetically, crowds them with intense collages and portraits.

In contrast, works like Heaven In Hell and Silence, Please, play with space and deeper colours to foreground particular elements, enticing you to focus not just on what is on the canvas, but also what isn't.

For Charif, evolution is an essential part of his artistic journey.

"(Artist) Marcel Duchamp once said, repetition is death. I completely agree. With my work, I don't want to repeat myself; I want to keep exploring and doing new things," he concluded.

>Absolute Charif will be showing at Maison Francaise (5 Jalan Changkat Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur) until early June. Viewing hours are: Tuesday-Thursday, 12pm to 10.30pm; Friday-Sunday, 12pm to 11 pm (closed on Mondays). For more information, call 03-21441474 or email info@maisonfrancaise.com.my.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Ahad, 7 April 2013