Born in Montevideo, Uruguay (1962), Aurelio Torres is a classically trained painter who distills the aesthetic laws of Antiquity –of proportion dictated by the Golden Section—as well as modern principles of painting directly from a source, whether it is a natural land- or seascape, or a posed model.
Travels through South America, Mexico, and Europe, and residence in New York City from a young age are all evidenced in his artwork, inspired always in the artist’s immediate surroundings, in what is at hand. Torres does much of his painting in natural, outdoor settings. He is an observer of detail in all objects and surroundings, as is evidenced especially in his portraits where his portrayal of the human figure captures not only the physical appearance but also the actual, true spirit and mood of each sitter.
A departure from his accustomed portrayal of directly experienced scenes and events is a series of military-themed works. News images from print and web-based sources have inspired helicopters and tanks that are represented in muted, sandy tones, some of the pigment at times ‘bleeding’, accompanying other effects of a nervous, staccato brushstroke that contrasts sharply with the soft, blurred forms and horizons in the compositions. These minimally chromatic and simple compositions reference a potentially contentious subject matter and lead viewers to comprehend a variety of meanings and feel any number of emotions depending on each person’s context and experience.
Torres also works in three dimensions, assemblages of carved, distressed, and angular pieces of wood that mainly reflect his memory populated by scenes of boats: his childhood home in Montevideo overlooking the traffic of vessels at the mouth of the port; his family’s voyage on a cargo ship from Uruguay to New York City, with stops at Brazilian ports and in Miami; and the time he spent living and studying in Barcelona, Spain, another significant port city. The essential form of a boat’s hull and the basic geometry of the sails are elements that Torres uses to compose sculptures that have a haunting, poetic beauty and subtle harmony in the union of simple shapes.
In either paintings or sculptures, Aurelio Torres focuses on a primary essence of any thing he represents, so that his subjects express what are often unseen facets, as they are perceived and interpreted by the artist. At the same time every work, despite being primarily representational, is elaborated in a way that it is left open to extensive exploration and interpretation by each viewer.
Torres has exhibited in Buenos Aires, New York, East Hampton, and most recently in Switzerland, at the Basel Art Fair. His work is found in numerous private collections in South America, Europe, and the United States. He currently lives and works in East Hampton, New York.