Instructed Shame 2013

Rodrigo Franzao made this abstract, mixed-media work with sweeping pastel marks, overlaid with graphic blocks of color that interrupt its flow. I can imagine Franzao, deep in his studio, experimenting with this combo of soft and hard elements, maybe puzzling over how they might fit, or not fit, together. It’s a pretty intriguing thing, this dance between gesture and geometry. Notice how the pastel strokes create this sense of movement, almost like a whirlwind of color, and then bam!—you’re brought up short by these flat, almost architectural shapes. There's a real push-and-pull happening, with the thin lines adding to the overall surface texture. The more you look, the more you see that Franzao is playing with layering, collage, and fragmentation. It’s a kind of visual puzzle. He's not alone in doing this. He’s chatting with a whole legacy of painters, and you can really get into thinking about how we’re all influencing each other across time.