Juan Sese: Finding the Shape of Things

Recently, I chatted with artist Juan Sese. I’ve been following his work for a couple of years. He is originally from Argentina—as you know, I have a soft spot for Argentinian artists—and is now based in Barcelona. I connected with him on Instagram when I saw his work: a melange of colorful shapes laid on canvas. During our conversation, a very gentle Juan showed me some of his work from his Barcelona studio and walked me through his creative process. With great candor, he shared the ups and downs of being a self-taught artist trying to make it in the art world at a global level.

Juan describes his work as having tension—I can only agree. The tension between organic shapes and competing colors exists in a constant, perfectly balanced push-pull range. His shapes are flat in color and have meticulous edges. Despite their flatness, the relation between the shapes on the surface of the work creates a great amount of depth. His process begins, as he described, by overlaying cutout shapes on the floor in a way that resembles the collage work of Matisse’s later years. This affords the shapes the possibility of infinite combinations. After several trials, once he has decided on a particular composition, the visuals are transferred—line by line—into the final work.

I believe artists need to constantly push themselves out of their comfort zone to achieve greatness. Consistent experimentation—with materials, concepts, scale, etc.— is the key to developing an artist’s cohesive creative vision. The awkwardness that exists during this experimentation phase is what propels the artist forward, from cumbersome testing to creative flow. As a self-taught artist, Juan is constantly working in this space, which I think is common practice among self-taught artists. By virtue of lacking formal training, everything they’ve learned has been through experimentation—a kind of training-on-the-job approach, if you will. Perhaps it is one of the reasons why self-taught artists seem to be at ease with the discomfort of not knowing where the work at hand is leading them.

Ultimately, the job of an artist is to follow that path until they find the way to work that is consistent with their vision. Juan is certainly moving in the right direction as he hones in on a well-defined creative vision. I am excited to see the evolution of this artist’s work.