Portrait on the Beach. Contemporary painting., 2018

Celso Castro  

A singular red line defines this composition. The figure rests in a moment of absolute stillness. This minimalist approach highlights the vulnerability of the male form. The artist employs an expert hand to trace the contours of the body against a warm, monochromatic background. 
The silhouette emerges with quiet dignity. By focusing on the human anatomy, the artwork challenges traditional perceptions of masculinity. It seeks to dismantle phallocentric norms through a lens of tenderness and honesty. This figure represents a specific Latin American identity rooted in the Colombian coast. 
The use of watercolor and ink allows for a fluid, seamless execution. There is a poetic tension between the starkness of the outline and the softness of the pose. The piece navigates the delicate boundary between intimacy and visibility. It serves as a silent rebellion against censorship and moral taboos. Every curve is intentional. The gaze is directed inward, emphasizing a state of peaceful introspection. The image concludes with the delicate rendering of the hands resting on the surface.

Undefined by medium, Celso Castro’s works each carry the presence of the artist’s hand through the transparency of their process. Castro’s oeuvre is strongly divided between his photomontage assemblies and watercolor paintings: the prior is marked by the labor-intensive deconstruction of portrait photographs and the latter, by the seemingly frenzied recreation of a past encounter rendered in the drips and scribbles of paint and ink. Both discriminating in what they reveal of the subject, his photomontage and watercolor portraits exude raw sexuality through the combination of Castro’s mark-making and gaze. Celso Castro’s work is a bare-bulb erotic photo foray into the underbelly of Colombia’s drug world. Castro’s labor-intensive, photo-collage works of drug kingpins, smugglers, hitmen, countrymen, street vendors, soldiers, paramilitaries, kidnappers, and pimps pose showing with pride their erect penises to the voyeuristic viewer. They look back at us with a shameless stare. They play the game that moves between vanity and seduction.

Acrylic and sienna red pigment on hand-painted ochre canvas.