Lois Lambert Gallery presents the renown Cuban artist Edel Bordón in his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, “Paradoja de la Soledad” or “Paradox of Solitude”, a collection of oil paintings on paper that evoke a content but melancholy feeling.

Bordón’s work conceptualizes solitude as a state in which one can find peace, contentment, and a forum for introspection. Paradoxically, he portrays solitude as a state of loneliness and isolation. Bordón often uses one figure per composition and in many instances he limits the range of facial expression seen in that portrait. In one piece the painting depicts a boy with his shoulders hunched over and his eyes peering down. The piece is fairly abstracted but the mannerisms Edel chooses to emphasize powerfully evoke a stark sense of aloneness.

Other pieces evoke in the viewer a smile as if they have discovered a humorous secret in Bordón’s imagery.

Edel’s stream of consciousness approach and use of color further realize the paradoxical nature of his work. Bordón uses experimental techniques with his oils often diluting them to a wash more traditionally seen in watercolors and gouache. By making the pigments transparent, Bordón creates a subdued color palette that reveals an emotion that is neither happiness or sadness but a complicated combination of the two.

Bordón’s process is intuitive. The artist doesn’t start with a formed idea of what he will paint. Instead, as he paints, the subject materializes on the paper. Edel pulls from his unconscious primary processes with every stroke of paint or line. Bordón’s hope is the viewer can enjoy his artwork from a similar place of pure pleasure, free of any sort of intellectualism, generating a sensual and emotional effect.