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A s far as he can remember, Julio Reyes has been fascinated by what he perceives to be

the inner lives of friends and strangers alike, but for many reasons this interest resonates much more for him today, at this moment, in both his personal life and professional art career. So much, in fact, he has themed his new exhibition of paintings at the Arcadia Contemporary in New York City around these imaginings.

“I’ve decided to call the show Vessels,” says Reyes. “For me, in today’s age, we have so many things competing for our attention, so many ideas of how we ought to live and to be, and while this causes wonderful things, it can also cause confusion. In my personal experiences, one of the things I’ve been sensitive to is those people who get lost in the mix, those who are figuring out who they are in the development of

knowledge of themselves.”Reyes finds it disturbing that in today’s world,

people are either placed on a pedestal or mocked and laughed at. “You’re either the hero or buffoon,” says Reyes, referring to the popular culture trends found in outlets such as the media and reality television, which play upon society’s need for both extremes.

“I love seeing the human consciousness depicted, but we need to teach how to empathize with people, to delve into someone else’s world or circumstances and find out what is going on in their lives,” says Reyes. “And what I’m doing is consecrating that in a way. I want to create a heroic vision of a person I’m depicting. I love the idea of really getting into something that is really human about someone else and creating a reverence for that.”

For Reyes, this works in a variety of ways and processes. First, while living his daily life, he often

INNER LIVESNew work by Julio Reyes will be on display at Arcadia Contemporary this November. B Y J O S H U A R O S E

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1 Julio Reyes at work in his studio.

2 Woodcutter, egg tempera on panel, 18 x 31"

3 Firestarter, oil on aluminum panel, 25 x 60"

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comes across things he feels will make good backdrops for paintings—a frozen pond discovered while hiking in the mountains near his home, a green meadow lined with trees or an empty cityscape with barren streets and lights in the windows of the homes and shops. Reyes stores these images—sometimes doing sketches from life at the moment he encounters them—to be used later in his finished paintings.

“I feel that's what I’m good at, grafting things together,” Reyes says. “I’ll take those images and then maybe some time later I’ll

meet a person who fits that background and what I want to say, and I’ll put them together and that is when the ideas start happening. I feel at times like a director in a movie, casting different people for different situations and looking for someone who can convey the feelings I’m trying to get across in the painting.”

The scenes or landscapes in Reyes’ paintings, however, are not hidden secret gardens or enchanted forests. They are real areas, distinct typically for their indistinctness. They are chaparrals leading

to freeway overpasses or frequented hills overlooking a city. What makes them significant, however, is the narrative he ties to them through the act of creating the painting. Reyes’ places are out in the open, accessible to everyone, yet they become significant because of the intimacy he attaches to them.

“It’s really a process of whittling down ideas and compositions,” Reyes says. “I’m trying to relate to something that is already there and have that intimacy dictated to me. I listen to it, and it teaches and guides

4 Long Shadows, oil on aluminum panel, 13 x 24"

5 Enigma, oil on aluminum panel, 35 x 29"

6 Dark Waters, oil on panel, 30 x 45½"

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me to what direction to go. I feel that when I’m successful, I’m capturing and bottling for you something I’ve experienced that is powerful to me.”

For this new exhibition, Reyes is experimenting with a wide range of surfaces, as well. Some of the paintings are done on thin slabs of marble, while another is the first egg tempera Reyes has ever attempted.

“It’s an homage to [Andrew] Wyeth,” says Reyes, “and it was very labor-intensive. It is hard to believe he was able to do them

so large, as such endurance is required throughout the process of an egg tempera painting. With egg tempera, you usually have very small brushes, and you are just sort of chiseling away centimeter by centimeter. It’s difficult and demanding. I’m not sure when I’ll do another again.”

Reyes won an award at the last annual Portrait Society of America convention, which was held in Philadelphia. While there, he traveled to Chadds Ford and the Brandywine River Museum and saw many Wyeth pieces at that location.

“He’s very important to me,” says Reyes. “One time, he said something about how the sky a person lives under dictates the color of their eyes and the texture of their skin. I love that idea.”

JULIO REYES: VESSELSWhen: November 13-30, 2014Where: Arcadia Contemporary, 51 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013Information: (212) 965-1387, www.arcadiacontemporary.com

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