Finding Art III

New Works by

Jorge Silveira

Silveira likes old objects, especially old wooden objects which he’s inspired to mix with acrylic paint and pieces of found rusty metal into monsters and faces. He’s also been using other found materials like burlap. “I really like expressing my creativity by finding discarded objects from the forest and the ocean, and turning them into raw and abstract characters or scenes,” says Silveira. Coming from Uruguay, a small country in South America, where everything gets repaired and reused such as old cars from the 1940’s and refrigerators that get fixed 20 times before they’re replaced, it surprises him how much material he can pick up on the beach and in nature that has been thrown away by people. It makes him feel good that he can pick up these objects and give them another life.

"This long winter forced me to stay in New York more than usual, and as I was looking for inspiration, some discarded objects I hadn't noticed before started appearing before me all around the city, sparkling objects no one else was paying attention to."

"The new material that I've used in many of this year's pieces: flattened empty soda cans that litter the streets, run over by traffic. Just as I was inspired in past years by objects thrown overboard or left to rust and recycled them into works of art, I did the same with these urban throwaways. With these I created a whole new line of work, some of it based on the fashion industry that is such an important part of New York, and in other pieces using this man-made glittery material to make images of animals and nature."

"Of course I'm still working a lot with the wooden and metal found objects the ocean tosses ashore during the winter, flotsam and jetsam that I find as I walk along the beaches of the South Fork on Long Island, so this year my pieces are inspired by a mix of the city and the beach, which is the lifestyle of my family and so many other New Yorkers."

New for 2011

Past Work