Selfie

“Selfie” (2019) marks a very personal work for Jorge Blanco: his self portrait. With traditional Blanco cheekiness, however, his abstract surrealism gives us a portrait of the artist as a conceptual man. The crisp yellow background fully surrounds the legless character. The tufts of hair on the sides of the head, the crystal clear blue eyes, and the two small pink buttons of his coat are magnificently specific touches. The lines that intersect throughout the piece suggest both the shadows and creases of the face brought with wisdom and age, but also the blurring boundaries of self every artist must examine when studying one’s own image. Making the bulk of his form stark white but for the rhomboid beneath the right eye also suggests shadows, with a whimsy that compliments the tilt of the head.