Buenos Aires (I Used to Love that Suicide World)

While Photorealism is usually explained as a uniquely American artistic style, it has also had important contributions in Latin America. Gravinese, a young artist from Argentina, is a leading figure within the contemporary re-birth of this style. The precise realism of this painting, based on a photograph, is contradicted by the loose, gestural marks on the surface, which remind the viewer that this is a painting, not a photograph. This work was painted while the artist was in New York, and the title refers to his nostalgia for Buenos Aires’s frantic nightlife. The photograph of a frozen suspended image, and its animated surface, recall the bitter-sweet experience of nostalgia, memory, and longing.