Paco Pomet - The Baker Museum of Artis—Naples, Florida

November 25, 2015 – March 30, 2016


The figurative paintings of the Spanish artist Paco Pomet (b. 1970) transform mostly anonymous graphic sources into examinations of history, memory, and the absurd. Elements of subversion, at times subtle, then flagrant, imbue his compositions – usually monochromatic landscapes and portraits – leaving the viewer both intrigued by their accuracy and technical mastery, yet puzzled by their iconology.

A native of Granada, Pomet is a mid-career artist with an international reach, a prolific artistic output, and one who is commanding increasing scholarly attention for his already impressive oeuvre. Charged with denotative and connotative meaning, his work pleases the eye while provoking the mind, making sometimes surprising statements. As the artist, he is the first cause, the one who transforms his concerns into an image, allowing the viewer to deductively and inductively translate that effect.

Pomet’s work is embedded in the contemporary visual culture of intensive production of images yet also goes against the current, vindicating the use of the imagination to challenge the commonly obsolete perception of reality. In his paintings, the artist distorts the meaning of the image he reproduces through different ways: by integrating an element – often humorous – that is out of context within the subject that is depicted; by deforming characteristics or physical extremities of the beings he portrays; by playing with scale; or by using bright, almost unreal, colors. The result is a hilarious if not shocking or mysterious composition that invites the viewer to search for meaning, a playful proposition that reflects Pomet’s ultimate interest in “nourishing an active naiveté for looking at everything anew,” far from conventions.

A prominent characteristic of Paco Pomet’s oeuvre is the almost tangible presence that the dimension of time commands in his paintings. The artist’s fascination with the technological revolution of the first half of the twentieth century, and the innovative spirit from which it arose, is translated in his work through the representation of inventions of this era, often infused with an anachronistic twist. Other recurring themes in Pomet’s oeuvre are his “grotesque” propositions; his incorporation of elements of Americana; compositions of non-sites; and the capturing of situations immediately preceding a fatal event.

Pomet’s oeuvre relates to the work of René Magritte (Belgian, 1898 – 1967) which bears enigmatic yet surreal elements. His painterly style is aligned with that of the postmodern artist Mark Tansey (American, b. 1949). Pomet also joins Gerhard Richter’s (German, b. 1932) interest in ‘photo-painting,’ naturalizing the illusionistic space and equalizing the oeuvre’s information through the blurring of its background. In Spain, his work shares with Ángel Mateo Charris’ oeuvre (b.1962) its inspiration in comics and Pop-Art, and with that of his former studio colleague, Santiago Ydáñez (b. 1969), its technical freshness.

Paco Pomet is the first retrospective museum exhibition of the artist’s work in the U.S.


artisnaples.org/baker-museum/exhibitions/2015-16/paco-pomet