This Venezuelan artist surprises us today with his incredible works that can even be interactive, are creative and original, have a raw charm and can turn any scrap metal into a magnificent work worth admiring. I invite you to enjoy it!
Astrid: Where does your desire to make art come from?
Luis: I remember that in high school some teachers made the billboards about the anniversaries, and the corduroys that they studied with me, they told me to draw drawings to their girlfriends, of course, that I charged them for these work for snacks and for anise on Fridays. And well, this was one of the starting points to enroll in the School of Visual Arts Cristóbal Rojas, in 2003.
Here I met my first sculpture teacher Silvestre Chacón and my conflicts with art began.
Astrid: Which techniques do you use the most and which do you enjoy the most?
Luis Toto: I use the collage technique with cutouts of figurative objects and other more organic ones. This varies through the project that I have at the moment, then I compose with the materials in a not so rational way, I improvise, I have fun, I talk alone … And I’m building the work. The technique that I enjoy the most and that I use frequently at the moment is iron assembly and welding.
Astrid: What is your goal or message when it comes to painting, drawing, sculpting, assembling?
Luis Toto: My goal is to work as quickly as possible and to be able to express myself through sculpture with the theme I am working on at the moment. The work has its time and space. Sometimes it gets stuck and I try to do something else in parallel, this allows me to breathe and rest from that process so as not to saturate ourselves with so many conceptual thoughts.
My goal is to try to capture in space, an idea in mind. Whether on paper, fabric, wall, pc, or sculpture. On the way the work takes its autonomy, accidents and the chance of work are taken advantage of. This gives an added value to the work and almost always these surprises are the most important in the creative process.
Astrid: Have you participated in national events? What places?
Luis Toto: Yes, I have participated, for now, in events related to art only in Venezuela.
Maracay, Valencia, San Felipe, Falcón, Miranda and Caracas.
Astrid: How many exhibitions have you participated in?
Luis Toto: I have participated in around 20 exhibitions since 2007. Both collective and three individual.
Currently, I am exhibiting at the 1st Luis Ángel Duque Contemporary Art Prize, at the Freites Gallery, with a work entitled “Our Recent History”. The CELARG, in the collective exhibition “Back to the trade”, with the work entitled: “uncle alive for 7, the eighth waits and turns him around”. Both interactive pieces that deal with the theme of memory, wars, and how you are have changed the course of humanity.
Astrid: Do you have any characters that inspire or influence you?
Luis Toto: They inspire me in the creative process, my grandmother, she is for me like a talisman of good omens; the sculptors: Guillermo Abdala, for his high sensitivity and tact to create spaces and forms in sculpture and in the way of representing utopian cities. Javier level for his ability to compose and assemble in his work, fantastic beings, mystics; Igor Rojas, inspires me by his patience and perseverance when approaching my work. Besides that his work has a playful and mysterious character that is of great interest to me. And Santiago Fauquie, for the ability to solve formal technical problems in sculpture and the questioning that it generates for me, as an artist to solve problems in life.
Astrid: What other trades do you have outside of sculpture?
Luis Toto: I’m a todero. I restore works of art, I make museography and exhibition assemblies, set designer and art director for film, theater and TV. In 2018 we won best scenography in the micro theater play, “Open Mind” directed by Valentina Garrido, a wonderful experience full of art.
I like cooking and inventing dishes with different flavors and shapes (idea that I applied to my nephews so that they eat all the food; buns with animal shapes and things like that…) I am an urban cyclist, I share the bike as a healthy and ecological means of transport. In the 2020 pandemic I asked my girlfriend, who will teach me how to take blood samples and some nursing things, to help us financially in those difficult days. So much so that I am going to start a nursing course at the Caracas Red Cross, because I also like to help people through first aid. My dream as a child was to be a doctor to help sick people. Grandma told me a lot about Dr. José Gregorio Hernández. And although I am not a doctor, nor a saint, I try to be as honest as possible with the work so that when I have to leave this world, my urn does not weigh so much.
Astrid: Do you think your work can have a big impact on the cultural movement in your country?
Luis Toto: Yes, I think it can have a great impact on culture, as long as it is to generate positive reflections to society, which entails aesthetic-formal and conceptual content. That contributes to the historical memory of the arts of the country and worldwide, and continue the legacy that our artistic references have left us. Especially Venezuelan teachers
It would be interesting to implement the arts and poetry in education from primary school to the end of university careers. This would bring as a consequence, more sensitive people and capable of generating interesting ideas, for the transformation of society and its geographical environment. The world must be given back more love and less war. Share and not compete.
Astrid: Which exhibition has been your favorite?
Luis Toto: There have been many, a collective can be, “Back to the Craft”, tribute to teachers Guillermo Abdala and Santiago Fauquie, at CELARG Altamira in 2018. And the individual “CHATARRAtales. Imaginary of a Sculptor,” at the African-American Museum in San Bernardino. The first was organized with a small part of the disciples who had the joy of acquiring the teaching of Abdala and the sharing of the beautiful things of our great friend Santiago Fauquie.
And in the second, I had the opportunity to take a sample full of assemblages everywhere inside the showroom, where my intention was that the viewer will enter a part of my imaginary of fantasy and fiction.
Astrid: And finally, any message for young people who want to start in the art world?
Luis Toto: I can advise young people, study hard, read a lot of poetry, philosophy, listen to good music with interesting and reflective content, be good citizens, have respect and love for others, take care of the environment, do not stop pursuing your dreams and if what you found is not what you like, That they do not eat so much sweet at night so that they do not get nightmares and in their next dreams they can materialize them and be able to lead a dignified and full life. Art is not only aesthetic objects within museographic spaces or in any square in the world, art is for me what you generate positively as an individual for the other and for the environment where you surround yourself. I am one of those who believes that you have to leave this planet more beautiful than how you found it.
Thanks to Luis Toto García for allowing me to talk with him today about his great artistic work. For me it is always an honor to be able to inquire a little more about the work of these wonderful artists, I invite you to visit their social networks.
Social media:
Instagram: @Ltgart_