Press releases
and articles


Paintings


Collectors


The artist, Jefro, began developing his intuitive talent during childhood. Soft spoken and thoughtful, the artist seems to be at peace with his art and life. His painted images are a celebration of repeated icons, which symbolically relate back to the remarkable life he led traveling through Asia, growing up in the Philippines and finally attending high school in Hawaii.

Artists, by and large, are products of the major influences in their metaphysical and emotional development. Jefro's great admiration for his craft is evident as the paintings are full of life and the joy of picture making. A deeper look into the structure of his painting reveal a well thought out balancing act of horizontal and vertical supports that sets up a rhythmic poetic tension. These abstract depictions of mostly female figures are reinforced with wide, thick dark lines that seem to act as dividers from background elements while emphasizing silhouetted designs.
 
   
    Jefro and Helmut Koller  (painter an photographer
 working in the studio next door.)

   
The studio                

A majority of the figures are vaguely reminiscent of a loose deck of cards with personalities to match. Figures with a decidedly royal feeling complete with crowns, hearts, diamonds, pearls and other symbols for a winning hand. Kings and queens and a few jokers thrown in for good measure seem to be an appropriate thematic road to follow for this gifted artist. Many of the colorful compositions present a line up of abstracted personalities, which stand shoulder to shoulder, ear to ear, so that the actual figures begin to dissolve into one massive checker board of geometric shapes and symbols.

Although harmonic color exercises are clearly fundamental in this artist oeuvre, black and white images also have a curious strength of simplicity. In one painting, titled MY Three Muses, the artist fills a grayish canvas with three puzzle-like cutouts that interlock with profiles and frontal views. Here the artist embellishes the basic design with white outlines, patterns and dots that all seem to interconnect like a vast inter-city highway system, complete with clover-leas, off-ramps and bypasses. It is clear Jefro has taken a right turn on the high road of a successful journey into private creative investigation that displays a strong affection for expressing one's inner self.

His latest suite of paintings, is full of his life's experiences and a celebration of his maturity as an artist. Viewers will discover a delightful common denominator of vitality, surface texture, abstract figuration and connecting visual poetry that will delight the eyes and energize the senses.

Bruce Helander Art Critic
 
Paintings

Jefro || Artists || Contact the Artists || Privacy || How to order || Links || Home