Under the firm belief that art represents the expression of a free spirit, Juan Carlos del Valle (JCDV) decided, very early in his training, to follow a path different from the norm. Passionate about painting and cinematographic production, he worked as a production assistant with Mexican filmmaker Paco Murguía before enrolling in the Communications program at Universidad Iberoamericana, in Mexico City.

Disappointed with the academic teaching, he left school determined to obtain a serious and strict education for himself, which was independent of the norms established by the global artistic trends.

A fan of the mastery of pre-modernist painting and distrustful of the artistic freedom of the non-conceptual forms of artistic expression, Juan Carlos del Valle began his professional training in the workshop of Demetrio Llordén (Spain 1931, Mexico 2000) in Mexico City.

An expert on the lights, settings and scenery of 19th Century Spanish Realism, Llorden guided JCDV from 1995 to 2000, instilling in him a discipline in his drawing and painting which, in those days, was uncommon in the world of Mexican art.

With a particular focus on the portrait and still-life genres – even as he was also creating nudes and landscapes – JCDV developed a drawing and painting mastery that is remarkable for its strong and dramatic power of expression which is based on the contrasts of the light.

With the passing of Llorden, JCDV continued his formal training for another year under the tutelage of José Manuel Schmill (Mexico 1934). As a painter interested in the poetic expressions relating to the evil and dark side of humanity, Smill introduced JCDV into a discourse related to the fiction of the comic strips or “Histoires Noires”.

In 2001, JCDV abandoned the formative stage and began the process of developing his own unique artistic expression, which is based on reflecting upon reality and exploring the nature of its artistic interpretation.

Surprisingly talented in the use of light and darkness as a means of expression, JCDV went through a formative period which many theorists have mistaken for a stage of maturity.

This formative stage, which took place from 1997 to 2001, is characterized by the creation of still lifes, portraits, costumbrist typologies and nudes in realistic representations, which are remarkable for the power of their poetic expressions depicted in the sharp contrasts between the light and the dark.

In addition to the paintings of smooth surfaces, this stage is also characterized by the majesty of the plain charcoal and wáter-colored charcoal drawings.

Interested in the dramatic character of the contrasts in light which are characteristic of Mexican and German cinema produced between the 1930s and the 1960s, led JCDV to develop, in conjunction with Llorden, his own unique artistic expression in his drawings, making open references to cinematographic poetry.

On the subject of the particular interpretation of types, objects, and natures which refer to the Mexican cultural identity, JCDV has put forth a proposal in which the traditional craft is combined with the striking effect of the aesthetics of the technological images.

Also remarkable within his works are the portraits in which, through an expressive contrast between the light, the shade, and the dark, the artist can be seen beginning to capture those human emotions which would later characterize all of his work.

Right from the beginning of his training, the artist was particularly skilled at line sketches created on the spot, and during this stage, he was able terto capture the physical and the emotional essence of animals and of people.

After weaning himself from under the tutelage of Schmill, JCDV begins a process of continuous creative experimentation that is based upon the reflection of the dual nature of reality: the essence and the plurality of reality on the one hand, and its artistic interpretation.

An expert on the lights ability to alter our perception of reality, JCDV begins a to break down the realisms created under the artistic models of 19th Century Spanish art.

With respect to the still-lifes, the artist extracts elements – foods, skulls – and makes them into protagonists, abandoning the traditional scenic settings which characterize the genre. As far as the portraits, they are becoming less of a description of the subject being painted and more of a display of human emotions

More and more obsessed each time with creating a realism that is able to capture the present moment, JCDV has opted for a creating his works in a manner that is quick, decisive and vigorous, which looks to capture that instant in reality before the light changes.

Concerning his painting, in addition to emphasizing the abstraction and the physical qualities of the energetic brushstrokes, JCDV delves into conceptual poetries through the act of the execution. An energetic and potent execution which unloads, through the violent application of the paint, a portion of the representation of reality.

With a fantasy that is broken down further each time into abstract-physical expressions, the artistic expression of JCDV began an expansion which replaced the representation of reality with the portrayal of a truth hidden within that reality. From this perspective, and using metaphorical representations, the faces become a vehicle for displaying emotions and the fruits acquired a physical presence that is capable of expressing what is human.

An important aspect to this stage is the artist´s first works involving invention of fictional beings and characters who, forged from realistic poetics, oscílate between reality and fiction.

Done in charcoal using a poetic of sharp contrasts that give rise to an unsettling presence that oscillates between reality and fiction, JCDV has created a magnificent series of Monsters which depict some of the popular traditions of the terror genre such as the Boogey Man and The Ouija.

Likewise on the matter of inventions but carried out through painting, the artist evoked the ambivalent mystery of the nights of the moon and the presence of the dead among the public.

Also present in this stage are the instantaneous sketches. Created based on models from the movies and from televisión, JCDV uses the stereotypical physiognomy of Jesus or of Napoleon to evoke emotions and human conditions such as power and the commitment to humanity.

Characterized by an inmediate creation, in which the imagination is drastically expanded towards the abstraction, the artistic expression of JCDV has resulted in a vocabulary of strong physical presence in which the evocation of duality predominates: the dual nature of reality, of the human condition, of the light and of the artistic poetics identified as the figurative and the abstract.

Realized from an exhalted creative action, in which the physical load is converted into an extensión of the artist´s emotions, the works from this stage are surprising because of that duality in which reality and fiction become blurred in the mystery of a dual realism which touches upon both the figurative and the abstract.

Oscillating between the figurative and the abstract, the realism of JCDV, although it is based on the seduction and dramatic style of the sinister realisms of the 19th Century, it breaks away from its origin incorporating contemporary characters which link it to both pop art and conceptual art.

Insolent and free in the choice of themes, the abstract-figurative realisms of Juan Carlos del Valle are unsettling because of their evident duality. Whether through foods such as a snack cake or through faces - no longer portraits – which are transfigured in the expressiveness of an energetic paintbrush, the realisms of Del Valle aim to portray a reality which is beyond the visible reality.

With his inmediate sketches that capture the human essence through the lineal expressiveness of physical references and, with full paintings which always leave something open to interpretation, the work of Juan Carlos del Valle proposes a dual realism which oscillates between and, at the same time is defined as, figurative, abstract, fictional and real.