Juan Bolivar’s paintings occupy seemingly extreme positions. They playfully exist somewhere between abstraction and the recognisable world and they hint both at humour and tragedy.

Geometry Wars presents a new body of work painted mostly in ‘greyscale’ and muted tones. The title describes Bolivar’s ‘struggle with abstraction’; whether to subjugate the square and present it as pure form, or whether to animate it into the world of figuration.

Bolivar’s paintings hover between the ridiculous and the sublime. They allude to other worlds beyond the picture frame; however, under closer inspection Bolivar shows a battered side to modernism’s promise of a new world.

Juan Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and lives and works in London.

A John Hansard Gallery exhibition (July – August 2008) and publication.