Voyage Fantastique 2014

Voyage Fantastique, by Carlos Sablòn, is created with oil on canvas. It looks like an airship of sorts, a fantastical conflation of boat and dirigible. Looking closely, you can see the labor involved in layering thin coats of oil paint to create these subtly blended colors and textures. The artist has built up the image from the ground, employing classical techniques to build up volume and create illusionistic depth. The striking iconography is not accidental. What does it mean for the balloon to be populated by a chorus of faces? Is this a ship of fools, afloat on an ocean of paint? It’s intriguing how the artist embraces traditional techniques to create something entirely eccentric. In this case, the very careful, time-consuming manner of production underscores the artwork’s strangeness. Sablòn has clearly invested a great deal of time and technique in this painting, and in doing so, he validates a tradition while also departing from it. This piece suggests that even the most established mediums can be pushed in unexpected directions.