Pablo Temes paints scenes of silent poetry at 30th exhibition

Pablo Temes, Perfil’s art director and chief artist, has opened his 30th exhibition Escenarios de una poética silenciosa (“Scenarios of a Silent Poetry”).

The show, at the Recoleta Cultural Centre (Junín 1930), will run for exactly a month until June 7 in Room 13. Curated by Daniel Santoro, the exhibition brings together 34 works spanning multiple years of the artist's career.

This collection including previously unseen pieces transcends the day-to-day of newspaper work to synthesise an aesthetic quest spanning more than 15 years. It delves into the solitude, nostalgia and melancholy of ultramodern life, the memories of his childhood and a profound social reflection in his undeniably unique style.

Temes revisits the themes that have defined his artistic style over the years: a dialogue between the melancholy of Edward Hopper, reconstructed in a vernacular key, and the power of Fauvism. 

From Barracas to New York, from childhood snacks to the storefronts of Manhattan, he captures the unexpected beauty of nostalgia with the same rigour as the urban fabric and its inhabitants, creating a profoundly symbolic visual world of dizzying shifts, striking contrasts and a moving use of colour.

Wild cyclists, homeless people huddled under the glare of an LED television, carousels spinning like life itself: Temes' metaphysical world is anchored between a reality that obeys the logic of dreams and the fleeting irruption of memory. The exhibition functions as a cumulative condensation of a style refined over decades, inviting us to reflect on the weight of nostalgia, solitude and modernity.

Temes is a key figure in art and editorial design in Argentina. A graduate of the Prilidiano Pueyrredón National School of Design, he has served for 40 years as art director of Editorial Perfil and has been responsible for many iconic covers of Noticias magazine. His cartoons, many hand-drawn, also graces the pages of the Perfil newspaper. Temes’ career combines the rigour of political cartooning with a vast body of artistic work that has been exhibited more than 30 times and is part of private collections both locally and internationally. 

“The exhibition brings together some of his works from the last 15 years, during which he dedicated himself to deciphering the unpredictability of the city, beautiful wherever it is found, and its creatures, those who unconsciously wait to be seen and recognized,” said art historian Yamila Valeiras about the show.

“In their ruinous and turbulent existence, the identities constructed by Pablo appear trapped in a certain solitude, controlled, even shared, but not lived in community. Immersed in the autopilot of daily life, these bodies, already hybrid in their animal-human nature, starkly expose micro-histories of alienation and self-absorption where we probably find ourselves,” he concluded.

Exhibition Information

– Thursday, May 7 to Sunday, June 7
– Room 13, Recoleta Cultural Centre (Junín 1930, Buenos Aires City (CABA)
– Free admission
– More at www.pablotemes.com

– TIMES