“Using the controversial place of petroleum within Venezuelan history from the middle of the last century to the present as point of departure, Vazquez-Figueroa has explored the economic and sociopolitical significance of this natural resource as much as its potential to generate cultural behaviors. Here we locate the center of the conceptual proposition that the artist unfurls in diverse series and media – such as drawings, paintings, sculpture, photography, and installation – in his exhibition Black Surface – The Undoing Process. The works, produced between 2014 and the present year, are also the result of investigations into materials and procedures that include petroleum and its derivatives as usable elements in his artistic practice. Problems related to perception, of as much physical as cultural phenomena, also buttress Vazquez-Figueroa’s strong interest in formal searches through the configuration of his varied and extended body of work.”

José Antonio Navarrete, Curator
Excerpt from the Catalog Essay,
“A Statement on Black Surfaces, The work of Tony Vázquez-Figueroa”
English Text Translation by Gined Vitali Ganem