Artist Statement
From Bogotá to a Queens studio.
Omar Chacón was born in Bogotá, Colombia and moved to the United States with his family as a child. He earned a BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design and an MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. He lives and works in Queens, New York.
His signature method began with a memory: his self-taught grandfather painting small abstract dots. Those dots became colorful lozenges and discs — read as aerial views of people, mixing, multiplying, and taking over the surface. The work draws on the folk art and indigenous textiles of South America and the mestizo fusion of Latin American life.
Chacón is represented by Robischon Gallery (Denver). His work has also been shown with Margaret Thatcher Projects (New York), Fouladi Projects (San Francisco), and Brunnhofer Galerie (Linz, Austria).
Acrylic is poured onto wax paper and left to dry into thousands of brightly colored ovals and drips — each one finding its own edge. Once dry, every shape is hand-peeled into a unique building block, then layered onto the canvas. A brush is never used.