Megan and Murray McMillan

Jorge Javier Lopez, Dogs Love Too, 2006

When we were in Laredo, we were introduced to a number of talented people, including an artist named Jorge Javier Lopez. You can tell immediately when you are in the presence of someone truly gifted as an artist, who lives outside the realm of the social politics and insider culture of today’s art world, whose life is consumed with art and practice: this is man is an artist.

Jorge graciously invited us to his home and allowed us to page through a tall stack of filled sketchbooks. The content of the work is powerful, gut-wrenching at times, and utterly true. It’s also beautifully crafted, and I have rarely seen an artist with such a consistent perfect pitch when it comes to composition. He draws intensely, often emptying an entire pen on one page, and knows intrinsically where on a page to start a mark and when exactly he has laid down the last necessary line of a drawing.

While formally untrained, Jorge is committed to a wide-ranging practice of drawing, painting, reading about art history and theory, and watching films and documentaries about art and art-making. While we were visiting, we got to talking about some of Gerhard Richter’s essays that have had a big impact on Jorge’s practice. He is also humble and generous, and sent us away with this drawing, one of our favorites of his series of dogs.

You can see more of Jorge’s work on his blog. Here are some of his recent paintings. His newest series of drawings of tumors, which he sees as physical manifestations of emotional pain, remind me of Tim Hawkinson’s intestinal circles. You can see some of the tumor drawings here and here. Jorge’s figurative work, I think, is his most profound and finely-tuned, you can see examples here, here and here. You can contact Jorge through his (still under construction) website.