Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores
inventor of the composition of images by rubber-stamping
(and world-famous master of watercolour and acrylic painting)
Adolescent 50 x 40 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores inventor of the composition of images by rubber-stamping (and world-famous master of watercolour and acrylic painting), boasts the presence of a large number of works in Italian, Peruvian and Chinese public museums, as well as in private collections not only in the aforementioned states, but also in the United States of America, in France, in Colombia, in Ecuador, in Argentina and in Chile.
Christian Flores’s Bicycles of Milan series embodies the empathy between the artist and older Beijingers (images from lenews.info)
In total he held sixteen personal exhibitions in various countries around the world (including in China, in Suzhou and Lushan) and participated in 62 collective exhibitions. Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores currently holds the position of watercolour teacher at the “San Augustín” State University of Arequipa, Peru.
Arequipa 65 x 50 cm watercolour
In this article Pedone’s Vice President and President for Lombardy Dr Stefano Giovannini (PhD) shows You some among the most representative works by Christian Flores.
Reflexión de una crónica 45 x 35 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
While thanking You for Your kind attention, the author gladly reminds You that to collect Christian Flores‘s works it is possible to send an e-mail to one among the following addresses stating “Christian Flores’s works” (or similar wording) as the e-mail’s subject:
stefanogiovannini87 [at] gmail.com, itpedone [at] gmail.com or itpedone [at] outlook.com
Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores inventor of the composition of images by rubber-stamping was born in 1975 in Huanta, Peru. After specializing in watercolor at the Escuela Nacional de Arte founded in Arequipa by the Peruvian painter Carlos Baca-Flor, in 1999 he graduated in Fine Arts at the San Agustín State University of Arequipa.
Christian Flores, master of painting by “rubber-stamp” and watercolour techniques.
The four main series into which Christian Flores‘s works are grouped are briefly presented below. What they have in common is a sensitive attention to the social problems of the context in which the artist lives, with particular reference to problematic migratory flows for contemporary human society, observed from the migrant’s point of view. The themes most addressed are therefore terrorism, identity construction, psychological impact of the migratory journey, integration into the arrival society. These foci result in very original results in terms of image conception and executive technique, strikingly in the invention of the stamp as the basic constituent of the figure, but also in a watercolour experimentation centered on the use of black. In the presentation below, the author also analyses Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores‘s poetics.
Christian Flores, master of painting by “rubber-stamp” and watercolour techniques.
(image from accademiainternazionaledellacquarello.com)
Terrorism
Ni escenarios: ni victimas ni culpables
2010 (untitled) 150 x 150 cm image made of rubber stamps
2010 De los autores 140 x 140 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
The inspiration for the series on terrorism came to Christian Flores from the riots that marked the Peruvian city of Ayacucho in the 1980s and 1990s: “In those years – explains the maestro – too many of my acquaintances lost their lives”. Unfortunately, “terrorism – he underlines – is still a current problem today”. Not only limited to Peru, but “plaguing every part of the world – he concludes bitterly – with its continuous destruction of human lives”.
Master Christian Flores decided to resort to this compositional innovation so that the unfortunate episodes represented remain indelibly imprinted in the memory of those who observe them, like ink marked on paper.
Identity construction
Manifiesta externa de un individuo doméstico
Diptych Adan y Eva cad. 60 x 90 cm acrylic paint on canvas
In the series Manifiesta externa de un individuo doméstico Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores shows his mastery of acrylic painting applied to the investigation of the path that the migrant’s psyche takes in the construction of identity, a process dictated by the interiority of the individual person on the journey as much as by external conditioning, and made difficult by the often unsatisfied need to combine one’s own experience with the requests for adaptation (or, at best, “integration”) of the welcoming society. “What interests me in particular – explains Christian Flores – because I consider it crucial, is the way in which the migrant finds himself re-establishing, for himself and possibly his relatives, a home in the place of destination“. Far from referring merely to the fundamental need for refuge, Flores raises the issue of how the migrant, therefore the human being, bases his identity partially on the place in which he lives, in a constitutively reciprocal relationship. “What are – the artist asks – the values, the meanings, the identity symbols that the migrant attributes to the new home? What is essentially a house?“. Reflecting on his own ten-year migratory experience (Peru->France->Italy->Peru) and on those of the many other migrants he knows, Christian Flores found himself wondering: “Why do we decide to settle in a place? Why do we leave a place? What makes us satisfied, happy, at ease in one place of dwelling and restless, frustrated, worried in another?”.
Dona y bambino 40 x 30 cm acrylic paint on canvas
It would be easy to respond exclusively from the point of view of fundamental needs, while it is incredibly less so to do so from that of aspirations, which not only change over time, but above all vary from person to person. “A fundamental role – observes Christian Flores – which emerged from the stories of the other migrants I met, is that played by the restitution of the self-image offered to the individual by the community, whether narrow or broad, of his peers, understood like those who share the difficulties linked to the status of foreigner, sometimes in a precarious economic condition, but equally important is the way of treating it that the natives implement”. These feedbacks are partly dependent on the migrant’s actions and partly on the prejudices of the destination community. As for his identity construction, the migrant can react to these feedbacks in various ways, along a gradient of assimilation.
Migration and integration in the arrival society
L’uomo in cammino ("Man on the move")
and
I senza nome (Those with no name)
A migrant himself, thus an expert on the challenges faced by those living abroad earning a living from their artistic talent, Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores inventor of the composition of images by rubber-stamping often places the relationship between migration and integration in the arrival society under the lens of his pictorial investigation. It was precisely from this analysis that some of his masterpieces arose, such as those in the series L’uomo in cammino (“Man on the move”) and I senza nome (“Those with no name”).
Massa Cathedral (image from Wikipedia)
Crucifix is the masterpiece of the series L’uomo in cammino (“Man on the move”)
(image from artandinvestments.com) image made of rubber-stamped dates
The series I senza nome (“Those with no name”) instead leverages Christian Flores‘s mastery in the watercolour technique to focus no longer on a symbolic abstraction but on the portrait of real migrants, people whom usually remain unnamed through the media, but who are at the center of the news every day for the problems related to their journey, at whatever stage it may be, except perhaps departure, which is taken relatively little interest in. Those people “with no name” immortalised by Christian Flores can be classified into three categories: women with children, single men and families. They are portrayed at departure, during the journey or at the destination. Despite his attention to photographic realism, Christian Flores is primarily focused on the interiority of the subjects, which he powerfully brings out, making them appear alive and credible despite the deliberately dirty images.
From I senza nome (“Those with no name”): Mujer y dos niños 100 x 67 cm
In the following, Pedone‘s Vice President and President for Lombardy Dr Stefano Giovannini (PhD) lists some representative works by Christian Flores available for collection (if interested, please send a related inquiry via e-mail to stefanogiovannini87 [at] gmail.com, itpedone [at] gmail.com or itpedone [at] outlook.com), for these works exemplify the creative genius of Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores inventor of the composition of images by rubber-stamping in the execution of said technique. They are works pervaded by a compassionately Christian sensibility typical of the author’s art poetics, which combines sociological analysis with the charitable piety of the true believer.
Hombre 30 x 40 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
One of the masterpieces of the technique he invented of composing images using rubber stamps, Hombre by Christian Flores excellently expresses the conjugation of Christian piety and sociological portrait, in this case of the suffering migrant. The compassion that forms the work and extends from it to the spectator, questioning him uncomfortably, is theoretically available to those who profess to be “Christian”, but in the face of a phenomenon of global proportions and undoubtedly epochal scope such as the exasperated intensification of migratory flows in the globalized era, it could also be of interest to “non-experts”. “Men, women, children, old people… – lists Christian Flores – they are all people, like me and you… We are all on the same Earth”.
Madre con niño 75 x 100 cm image made of rubber stamps
Unquestionably another Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores‘s masterpiece, Madre con niño stands out for belonging to the series of “perforated” works, i.e. depicting the dark roundness of the barrel projecting the fatal fruit of the firearm, protagonist not only of the occasional terrorist events which the artist inspires a notable part of its production, but also of the wars that force part of the human race every day to flee towards promised shores. “The inspiration for most of my works – confides Christian Flores – comes from nothing other than the daily news”, through which we are constantly made aware of genocides and other human-made calamities.
Metralleta fecha 20 x 50 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
Procesión 40 x 80 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
Metralleta fecha and Procesión can also be counted among the masterpieces of the technique invented by Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores of creating images made of rubber stamps, through which the master produces plausible scenes which, if observed from afar, seem to be made up of continuous lines, while, if approached, become surprising for the words, numbers and/or drawings marked by the stamps used to generate them.
Adolescent 50 x 40 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
“We humans – Christian Flores thinks – are all mutually connected. I hope that the viewer perceives the existence of this network and is encouraged by this awareness to eliminate the misunderstandings that cause violence and wars”.
Inicio 45 x 50 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
Pedone-recommended artist Christian Flores stresses: “We all walk on the same planet, we are all someone’s children and relatives. Understanding this can give us a peaceful rest”.
Descanso (“Rest”) 30 x 40 cm image made of rubber-stamped dates
While thanking You for Your kind attention, the author gladly reminds You that to collect Christian Flores‘s works it is possible to send an e-mail to one among the following addresses stating “Christian Flores’s works” (or similar wording) as the e-mail’s subject:
stefanogiovannini87 [at] gmail.com, itpedone [at] gmail.com or itpedone [at] outlook.com