The Oscar Molina Gallery’s Molina / Vignoli Exhibition

The Oscar Molina Gallery announces the exhibition Molina / Vignoli  that will be on view from August 11^th to August 22^nd.. Curated by Esperanza León, the exhibition at this intimate space on Jobs Lane brings together a selection of works by Oscar Molina and Fernando Vignoli for whom the interpretation of human dramas—individual and global—is a consistent theme. Paintings from Molina’s Raindrops series, such as the recent 66 x 120-inch, untitled acrylic on canvas, will be featured with four of Vignoli’s works, including the prominent 73 x 73-inch oil on canvas from 2008 titled Time Does Not Stop.

Fernando Vignoli was a Brazilian artist (b. Belo Horizonte, 1960) active on the East End since the early 2000s. For several years he ran an eponymous gallery in Sag Harbor where primarily he showed his own work and could often be found painting on site. Vignoli was known for his unique stylistic combination of surrealism and expressionism. Highly talented and charismatic, Vignoli died in 2016 having created an extensive body of work that met critical acclaim and was widely collected locally and worldwide. A 2006 canvas, Untitled (Cryotherapy), could seem a foreshadowing, as this vital artist succumbed to leukemia, while Time Does Not Stop serves as a poignant reminder, given Vignoli’s untimely death, to remain present and live each day to the fullest—something he very much did. 

Oscar Molina is a Salvadoran-American artist based in Southampton. The work he has created through the last 20 years has been inspired primarily in his life experiences. The series of paintings and sculptures entitled Children of the World consists of particularly sensitive, abstracted representations that reflect the vivid memory of his journey to the United States: a vision of silhouetted figures in the night, the figures of faceless individuals making the treacherous crossing to a new life. For Molina, the Raindrops series represents a related idea that “Rain can cleanse anyone’s mood and shift their state of mind…”; a suggestion that one can transcend a dark hour by allowing that circumstance simply to flow over and through you. Stylistically and conceptually, the figures and raindrops are connected. In Molina’s view, “rain connects Heaven and Earth drop by drop. That is to say, drops are connected to Earth as they hold the heavens from falling.”

“It feels good to exhibit with Vignoli because our artworks have philosophical, emotional, and conceptual elements in common. Our work is immersed in our distinct personal realities and we see and express how these realities connect with other people and what goes on in the world around us. I am known to say at any given moment, ‘simply beautiful’—about art, about life. Sadly, Vignoli is not with us any longer and, like the title of one of his paintings indicates, ‘Time Does Not Stop’. It did not stop for him, but his work remains to be enjoyed. Opening the gallery this year, working with artists I consider to be kindred creative spirits, having this exhibition, I am saying at this moment that amazing things are happening. And it is simply beautiful.” says Oscar Molina. 

In addition, Oscar Molina Gallery introduces the work of the young Spanish artist César Orrico, featuring three sculptures that connect classical art with the contemporary. On view will be Origen (Origin), Caronte, both 2022 bronzes; and Hikari, an artificial stone and wood sculpture from 2014. Also currently displayed are recent bronze Bulls by multi-disciplinary, Mexican artist Enrique Cabrera and sculptural furnishings by Brazilian artist Flavio Franco and American sculptor Glen Mayo.

Esperanza León is an art historian and independent curator who has worked with artists of Latin American background since 2001 through ArtSolar in East Hampton.

For more info, visit www.OscarMolinaGallery.com