Ramon Ostolaza Opening

To understand the big picture, you need to understand the parts. I’m an engineer as well as an artist and an educator, and through my work I try to understand not only this world and how it works, but also myself; this is the main reason of Split.

There are many aspects into each person, and Split explores some of the ones that form my persona. This work has been in development since I can remember, putting different aspects of my personality at hand to be examined and experienced individually as well as in group. The reason for the masks is that they have been used since the beginning of humanity. They allow us to become something else, to obtain power, to express feelings, to demonstrate your beliefs.

But to wear a mask you must surrender something, you deprive yourself from vision, hearing, breathing, and sometimes, identity. A mask may make you different from the rest, but most frequently, will help you blend into a group and become accepted.

I’ve been constantly creating characters that populate my universe, some are a synthesis of ideals, some are desires and others are emotions. Taking images from literature, popular culture, history and adding my own, the characters start to materialize and some of them have been waiting for years in the pages of my notebooks while others consolidated while I started my residence here.

Having this time to immerse into my work with little distraction has helped me into the process of completing the body of this show.  Initially, there were going to be just four characters and I was planning a completely different approach in technique and materials. During my first week, while exploring the materials available here and adapting to this new rhythm of work, other characters were emerging and consolidating. I invite you to take a closer look to some of those characters and explore them.  Maybe you’ll find some similar to you and others too different than yourself.

Thanks for joining me on this exploration voyage, I’ve learned a lot and hope you enjoy it as much as I am.