Othón Castañeda: An Artist with an Eclectic Repertoire

Mural Semilla Volátil (Volatile Seed), by Othón Castañeda. 1465 SW 8th Street. Little Havana. Miami, FL. Courtesy garymercerphoto.com

By Yuleina Barredo

The city of Miami reaffirms itself as a hotbed of identities that lend a multicultural flavor to its urban dynamic. If for decades Cuban emigration has been the chief Hispanic ingredient in the growing Miami community, today that preponderance coexists with credos, races and languages from every corner of the planet. Thanks to this context, hundreds of doors are simultaneously opened, releasing the essential oils that enrich the cycle of human existence.

Into this scenario, whose inertia has been interrupted by a booming artistic movement driven by Art Basel Miami Beach, among other art fairs, and by the proliferation of galleries in various parts of the city, Mexican artist Othón Castañeda enters with a desire to break through all of the thresholds that lead to self-realization. Very much in keeping with his expressive intentions, he has presented us with his most recent project entitled The Doorman, based on the sculptured mural called Semilla Volátil (Volatile Seed), located on a side wall of the CUBAOCHO Art and Research Center building, next to another mural created by Cuban-American Xavier Cortada some 10 years ago.

The idea for this public intervention came from the head of the Fundación Apogeo, Baltasar Martín, who invited Castañeda to attempt a variation on the traditional mural technique by utilizing mortar and other industrial materials to bring dynamism and durability to the ancient process. It was the first time this artist was to undertake a large-scale piece using a method completely novel to him. He had previously experimented with concrete in the execution of some pigmented sculptures, assembled in his exhibition “Espacio Profano” (Profane Space) – Museo de Arte Tridimensional, Mexico City, 2005. In the spirit of learning from the undertaking, he decided to accept the challenge.

The author’s aesthetic concerns are displayed in the mural comprised of more than twenty removable, volumetric panels. They depict the sprouting, growth and dispersion of a seed of anthropomorphic appearance, rich in sinuous and sensual forms, ever-present in the oeuvre of this multifaceted creator. In the conception of this piece, in which the paint, like a form of relief, appears to acquire a life beyond the wall serving as its support, the artist exposes influences arising from his interest in the work of the great masters of the history of universal art. Among them, he acknowledges David Alfaro Siqueiros as one of his chief visual referents. In the way he sketches a design of lines and analyzes perspective and space in order to integrate his work into the environment, it is possible to recognize in Castañeda a genuine identification with the celebrated Mexican muralist.

Courtesy garymercerphoto.com

Also, from his training as an architect (graduate of the Universidad Autónoma de San Luís Potosí, Mexico), he derives his visible obsession with volume and organic forms, which recur in his pictorial and tridimensional creations. This justifies his identification with Antoni Gaudí, Santiago Calatrava and Frank Gehry; in them, he finds a theoretical basis for his work. Architecture also provides him with a routine when approaching the creative act. He establishes a hypothesis, elaborates a preliminary plan and then proceeds with the realization of the final project, a practice that makes his pieces unique and unrepeatable.

As part of The Doorman project at the Tower Theater (1508 SW 8th St.) and with the sponsorship of the Instituto Cultural de México, on July 31, Castañeda presented his solo exhibition “Rare Self-Portraits.” In this collection of works, the author assumes a more intimate pose as a consequence of an introspective phase. He reveals to us an eclectic artist, who has explored almost all artistic genres, even the design and construction of scenery for theatrical spectacles. In “Rare Self-Portraits,” comprised of recent paintings, sculptures and collages, this creator played with the genre of the self-portrait using the qualifier “rare” to justify not only his penchant for abstractionism, but also the unfinished workmanship of the pieces. He takes advantage of the material’s crudeness, whether it be fabric, wood or embossing paper; as in serigraphy, impressions on pictorial surfaces are later pigmented. In the process of assembling the sculptured objects for installation in the gallery space, the artist was once again complemented by the architect in a merging of disciplines that presented us with the image of Othón Castañeda as an authentic creator.

Mural Semilla Volátil (Volatile Seed), by Othón Castañeda is located at 1465 SW 8th Street. Little Havana. Miami, FL.

Yuleina Barredo is an art critic based in Miami.