Joan Belmar
Georamas is an ongoing series that I started in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic in my studio in Hudson Valley, New York.
This series on paper and canvas evokes the worlds of geography and geometry, hence its name.
I use acrylics, inks, and oils. I have developed various techniques, along with shapes and materials, that have become a kind of signature using a new vocabulary. I have also added thin layers of translucent woodcut prints and rice glue that are inspired by the Ukiyo-e period (17th to 19th century) in Japan. On these laser-cut woodcuts, I integrate photographs from rural and urban locations. Examples include the textured skin of the watermelon from Rengo, Chile, the little windows of buildings in New York City or Berlin, a Mayan calendar, and the round-shaped manhole covers in our cities. Too often we fail to even notice some of these geometrical elements in our rushed daily lives.
I also employ architectural transparencies and velvet saturations to reflect the complexity and contradictions of our current times. This series invites the viewer to see a new world with aspects reminiscent of a crackled past.
Joan Belmar was born in Santiago -Chile. He graduated with a degree in Graphic Design/Technical Drawing in 1993 from the Fundacion DUOC in Santiago.
At age 24, Belmar moved to Spain where he began his professional career as an artist. In 2003, he was granted permanent residency in the United States on terms of extraordinary artistic merit, and in 2010, he became an American citizen. He was awarded the ‘Outstanding Emerging Artist of the Year Award’ by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities at the Kennedy Center, the Individual Artist Grant by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, MD, and the state of Maryland. In 2016 he won first place in the Osten Biennial of Drawing in Macedonia. His works have been featured in several exhibitions and collections including the University of Maine Museum of Art, Maine, USA, and The John Wilson Building, Heart of DC, City Hall, Washington, DC. Lithuania US Embassy permanent collection, US Embassy in Manila, Philippines, US Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Chilean and Colombian Ambassador’s art residences in Washington D.C.
