‘Mare Nostrum’ exhibition at BHIP Art GAllery Amsterdam, Netherlands
December 2010 - January 2011

“I do not believe in the separation between abstract and figurative. This difference does not exist for me.” For painter Carlos Seguel (Santiago, Chile - 1959) is whether his paintings are abstract or figurative irrelevant. For him commuting between these extremes is precisely a way to discover his own pictorial language. The works of the artist in recent years has become more abstract and less anecdotal, but he does not discard figurative work. “I leave the door open for images.”

Seguel began his artistic training at the academy of the University of Chile in Santiago. In 1980 he decided to leave Chile under dictator Augusto Pinochet and moved  to the United States. “It felt like an escape,” he recalls. In America he studied graphic design for four years and later headed to Europe, where he lived first in Britain and later in Belgium. From 1987 he spent a long time in Amsterdam, where he worked as a graphic designer and at the same time paved his way as a painter. In 2003 he decided to settle in the Italian village of Tuscania.

Whoever sees one of Seguel’s canvas, is drawn first off by the remarkable use of color hues. The painter, who mixes his own pigments, works with many transparent layers and reaches luminous, brilliant tones. “I paint a lot on the floor because I throw the colors on the canvas,” says Seguel. Laughing: “A bit like the Pope sprinkling with holy water.” 

For Seguel paintings have a life of it’s own, originated earlier rather than consciously making them. “I do not want to be my picture too much. I can never lay a finger on why I paint. Painting is like life.” 

Yet his life and especially the many trips have influenced his art. So he went as a student often to the Atacama desert in Chile, where he was inspired by the delicate tints of the landscape. “The Atacama has colors like a watercolor. When I think back, I can still see the two volcanoes and mountains in the background.” Seguel describes his paintings as a little “contemplative, almost oriental” and painting as an “inner voyage, an attempt to cultivate a rich journey. “For example, I cannot paint if it is not going good with me. You need to have peace with yourself to paint. And believe!”

Saskia  Bosch