Heridas Indelebles 

Curator: Wow, there's a visceral kind of scream buried beneath the surface. Rawness first, almost painful to look at. Editor: That's certainly one way to describe "Heridas Indelebles"–"Indelible Wounds"—by Ramón Oviedo. This is a striking example of his matter painting, acrylic on canvas, but oh so much more. Curator: Matter painting indeed, I feel like I can almost touch the texture. That earthy palette set against the pale green—it's not quite soothing, is it? More like a held breath before something breaks. Visually, the form almost reminds me of a collapsing figure. Editor: I agree that form is really central. Note the strong vertical thrust countered by those chaotic horizontal striations—that feels symbolic to me, almost an agony of a figure bound and torn. The wounds that mark but can not kill? The wounds the define us. And that muted green, almost a surgical light kind of tone Curator: Precisely! Wounds can become integral, can't they? That light actually accentuates the violence happening in the center; it’s disturbing. Are the thin, sharp lines perhaps representative of trauma being woven into a person’s identity, some self inflicted for safety and a strange control? It almost looks like they’re binding the… the absence within this figure together, for fear it shall disappear if it ceases being hurt? Editor: An insightful reading! These images can take on so many powerful psychological associations. And given the socio-political context that so influenced Latin American abstract expressionism, like Oviedo's Dominican Republic, might we be looking at something wider than individual experience too? A national trauma somehow condensed into one symbolic body, etched permanently? Curator: Perhaps it transcends the personal… A visual shorthand for the scars borne by an entire people. Art always becomes more poignant if the message resonates universally beyond time. So much turmoil visualized with striking yet subtle sophistication. Editor: Yes. And while this work resists easy answers or singular interpretations, it offers a potent meditation on memory, trauma, and resilience and offers enduring reflection to modern challenges. Thank you for this insightful look at these wounds. Curator: Indeed, indelible, or simply the definition we embrace so it isn't held above us like some sword? Thanks for digging deeper.