Alma Fine Art Press Release

Photography has a purely scientific origin. Shown for the first time in 1839 by astronomer François Arago in Paris as a scientific curiosity related to "a technical act and a chemical process," his intention was simply to fix an image on a plane. This ability to freeze objects in time has dominated the photographic imagination for generations and, although few would claim that photographs leave reality unaltered, a tyranny of the figurative has taken hold of the field.

Nonetheless, a subterranean current of abstraction has coexisted alongside the mainstream since the beginning. Hints of this can be seen in the photographs of pioneers such as Daguerre and Talbot, but blossomed in the works of Aaron Siskind, Minor White, Ernst Hass, and György Kepes; artists who turned the camera on itself and made photography’s underlying elements the subject matter of their work.  

It is this parallel chapter within the history of photography that interests Ariel Toledano. A Visual Communicator, graduated at the Instituto de Diseño IDD in Caracas, (institution founded by two academic groups, one just arrived from Europe that were influenced by Constructivism, Bauhaus and De Stijl movement and the other that was active in the development of kinetic art that was brewing in Venezuela), and director of Film and TV commercials since the 80’s, Toledano has been exploring abstraction in his informal and lyrical large canvass paintings since the 1970’s. His experiences with painting lead him to use still photography as a means to manipulate light and color. By utilizing camera movements as brush strokes and using prolonged exposures as a means of layering images on a still surface , his photographs invite us to reconsider the pictorial and aesthetic capabilities of the medium. Looking at them, we become aware of hidden possibilities inherent in our surroundings; a distillation of form and color that demands that we stop and take a second look at the world around us. 

In the words of the artist: 

My intention is not to freeze a moment in time or to highlight a particular event in a sequence.  I am more interested in capturing the dynamics generated during my encounters with objects and their environments.  The use of prolonged exposures allows me to interact with the subject as I create the photograph. The images are layered on the surface with camera movements acting as brush strokes on a canvass. This use of photography questions the arbitrary boundaries that culture has placed on the medium. The work is “woven” with my hands, resulting in images that are reflective and evocative; both faithful reproductions of my interactions with the subject and a testament to the power of light to transform the everyday.  

Interview by Carolina Maya

Photography has a purely scientific origin. Shown for the first time in 1839 by astronomer François Arago in Paris as a scientific curiosity related to "a technical act and a chemical process," his intention was simply to fix an image on a plane. This ability to freeze objects in time has dominated the photographic imagination for generations and, although few would claim that photographs leave reality unaltered, a tyranny of the figurative has taken hold of the field.

Nonetheless, a subterranean current of abstraction has coexisted alongside the mainstream since the beginning. Hints of this can be seen in the photographs of pioneers such as Daguerre and Talbot, but blossomed in the works of Aaron Siskind, Minor White, Ernst Hass, and György Kepes; artists who turned the camera on itself and made photography’s underlying elements the subject matter of their work.  

It is this parallel chapter within the history of photography that interests Ariel Toledano. A Visual Communicator, graduated at the Instituto de Diseño IDD in Caracas, (institution founded by two academic groups, one just arrived from Europe that were influenced by Constructivism, Bauhaus and De Stijl movement and the other that was active in the development of kinetic art that was brewing in Venezuela), and director of Film and TV commercials since the 80’s, Toledano has been exploring abstraction in his informal and lyrical large canvass paintings since the 1970’s. His experiences with painting lead him to use still photography as a means to manipulate light and color. By utilizing camera movements as brush strokes and using prolonged exposures as a means of layering images on a still surface , his photographs invite us to reconsider the pictorial and aesthetic capabilities of the medium. Looking at them, we become aware of hidden possibilities inherent in our surroundings; a distillation of form and color that demands that we stop and take a second look at the world around us. 

In the words of the artist: 

My intention is not to freeze a moment in time or to highlight a particular event in a sequence.  I am more interested in capturing the dynamics generated during my encounters with objects and their environments.  The use of prolonged exposures allows me to interact with the subject as I create the photograph. The images are layered on the surface with camera movements acting as brush strokes on a canvass. This use of photography questions the arbitrary boundaries that culture has placed on the medium. The work is “woven” with my hands, resulting in images that are reflective and evocative; both faithful reproductions of my interactions with the subject and a testament to the power of light to transform the everyday.  

Assigning numbers for titles

It's really hard to be consistent but definitely, I make the utmost effort to do so. In this sense, I have constantly expressed on whether my work, either painting or photography, can be identified under titles. Why? Well I never felt that a title could add anything to my work. On the contrary, I watched as people limited themselves interpreting the piece under the constraints of the linguistic meaning that the title implied.

Finally, I have benefited from the digital age. It gives me the opportunity to receive a digital file that already comes with a randomly assigned number. And there I go, no more doubts or long hours of useless thoughts.

Wherever possible, I intervene my photographs the minimum required, either by software or other elements. In the specific case to the titles and since it is not in my interest to associate the images to representations or objects, the numbering suits perfectly.

They stay as they arrive.

Reading myself

As I commented on previous posts, I'm not a typical photographer and therefore, my photographs are strictly atypical. They don’t like being associated to visual reality or pretend to emphasize the mechanical/electronic perfection built in the camera. Neither wishes to describe a situation or a recognizable object in space and time. When I draw them myself, I point out that the photos are the ones that become objects or situations by themselves establishing existential positions that want to counteract an orthodox vision of life. Where, how or in which circumstances they were created is absolutely moot.

Indeed, they arise from small moments of my daily life. Generally, common situations, irrelevant, trivial, but that encourages my curiosity for all that we ignore in our haste to watch "the big picture" bypassing the beauty of the details and workings of nature.

Technology and modern media, above all in the visual field since we have become a visual society, is an outright deception. They strive to make us believe in a perfect world, where everything is sharply focused and where evolution and wellness is infinite and timeless truth. For me, this view does not correspond to my experience of imperfect reality, ups and down, cyclic processes and particularly, the certainty of a finite world.

Facing this position, I seek my theme in imperfection, center my interest on the activity between the foci, and all that might blur or confront the illusion of a perfect existence. Standing there, I encountered poetry, humanity, life itself, the magnificence of silence, color, line and even the encounter with the unknown and forgotten. My images are the dwellings inhabited by the spirits who struggle with me day by day while I reach the end of existence.

An approach to my work

When people approach me to inquire about my photographic work, they usually ask about the object portrayed or the theme that is narrated trying to comprehend my images from a rational/descriptive perspective. I have to say that I don’t rationalize my work, and therefore do not attempt to represent defined objects or orthodox readings of the common visual world. My proposal is not designed to be read literally or to be given an accurate reading of a recognizable theme. The spectator is free to do so, but it will lead him into a prompt dead end and I will see the intention of my work frustrated.

Rather, my objective is to introduce the viewer to a different visual reference allowing him to enjoy my art from a naked emotional perspective. I am a primary artist with a primitive visual language that reflects form, color, line and movement. I generate abstract images, not figurative ones, not objective or representative ones, or however else anyone might wish to tag them.  I aim to surprise the spectator and motivate him to spontaneously connect to primary irrational feelings. My work is an invitation to receive the impact of a language that might attract or leave you indifferent, without having to understand why.

Much of the art in earlier cultures: signs and marks on pottery, textiles, inscriptions or paintings on rock, were simple, informal or linear forms that had a symbolic or emotional purpose. It is at this level of visual meaning that my abstract photography communicates. One can enjoy the beauty of Hindu symbols or Jewish calligraphy without being able to read it. In the end, you’ll either love or hate my pictures, want them near or reject them.

This experience is also a form of wisdom. To me, the purest form.