Se trata del ilustrador norteamericano Joe Sorren, ganador en 1997 de la medalla de oro de la “Sociedad de Ilustradores de Nueva York” y gracias a la cual, su trabajo pudo ser difundido. De ahí que sus ilustraciones han aparecido en importantes publicaciones como Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times, Juxtapoz, Step-by-Step, Art Now, Communications Arts, entre otras. Nacido en Chicago, Illinois, en 1970, Sorren comenzó a pintar a la edad de 21 años. El primer contacto que tuvo con el arte fue el Museo de Arte de Chicago y en 1993 se graduó de la Universidad del Norte de California. Originalmente, quería ser historiador del arte, botánico, e inclusive, hasta trabajar con caballos, pero hubiese sido una lástima que con un mundo onírico tan potenciado, Sorren se hubiera inclinado detrás de la escena política en la que también pensó como carrera profesional. Muchas de las obras que realiza Joe Sorren parecieran estar esculpidas con plastilina, sin embargo, uno se sorprende al observar con detalle y admiración que se trata de óleo, lo que equivale a una tridimensionalidad y textura, únicas. La mirada de sus personajes, la amalgama de su paleta tan diversa y vívida, nos remiten a un mundo fantástico de fisonomías infantiles y actitudes de adultos donde la melancolía es sencillamente exquisita.
ENG: Sorren creates layer upon layer of texture with oil paint upon his canvas until creatures and sceneries somehow captured by extreme emotion emerge with impressionistic brushstrokes, as if from the deepest meanderings of the Artist’s imagination. Sorren’s inspiration for his paintings comes from human behaviours, classic moments that he turns into romantic, everlasting fractions of time. “Since painting is a physical record of movement in time”, Sorren affirms, “brushstrokes are not unlike the grooves on a vinyl record-capturing not just the colour and shape of a stroke, but the timbre; the energy and emotion experienced at the time it was painted”.
Sorren allows his artworks to evolve sensitivity naturally and subconsciously. The process of study and realisation may take even years and each new layer of paint, reflects the subject’s spiritual metamorphosis into new beings. A figure may develop into a hill or in a landscape; or perhaps a tree may morph into a human being. Mysterious creatures enclosed in their inaccessible ocean and absorbed into their simultaneously melancholic and joyful state, populate Joe Sorren’s large size paintings, which examine the wonders of nature and of the human spirit.
Always playing with new forms and palette, Sorren highlights the tender faces and gestures of his inimitable figures and generates his unique, living fairytales. By recording feelings of joy, he creates something like a sweet symphony coming out of our ordinary moments, which ultimately realises an idealistic freeze-frame belonging to modern life. Sorren’s emotional subjects are remarkably moving and able to step us back into the memorable and timeless serenity of childhood.
His artworks have appeared in various publications, including The New Yorker, Time and Rolling Stone and he has worked with media companies such as Warner Bros, Fox, and NBC. During the last 15 years, he has shown his artworks in solo exhibitions in galleries and museums both in the United States and abroad. In 2010, Sorren was featured in the exhibitions “Art from the New World” at the Bristol City Museum, and “Pop Surrealism,” held at the Museum of Visual Arts Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto, Italy curated by Dorothy Circus Gallery during the “Festival dei Due Mondi”.
