AGUSTIN PORTILLO

 

"The art of Agustin Portillo joins the expressionist current which has notable interpreters in our country, such as Jose Clemente Orozco, Jose Luis Cuevas, or in more recent times, German Venegas. Portillo's earlier work, imbued with pop and conceptual elements, has been replaced by a totally distinct style, filled with provocative messages which reveal, in an explicit and bruising manner, the most bitter face of our epoch.
Inspired by the diverse culture of Chicago and attentive to images that appear in the press, in magazines, and on the internet, Portillo presents a stinging chronicle of American society, through noxious scenes that take place, for the most part, in gaudy social meetings of the upper middle-class or in dwellings of little importance. In both cases, the artist portrays a pathetic atmosphere that speaks of the spiritual decay of contemporary man, the void and chaos of a society controlled by love of money that has brutalized human beings until they are converted into grotesque monsters which escape reality through drugs, alcohol, pornography and the unchecked accumulation of material goods. (...)"