Museums

In the galleries: Rooted in nature but not always natural

March 6, 2015

José Miguel Bayro Corrochano, one of the “Two Painters From the Southern Highlands” at All We Art, was born in Bolivia in the 1960s. Influenced by such 20th-century Iberians as Picasso and Miró, his work shares a folkloric quality while developing a distinctive visual language. Bayro Corrochano (or “Bayro C.”) moved to Mexico, where he diversified into many media.

Bayro C.’s output includes prints, ceramics and small bronzes (including one of a voluptuous nude on horseback) as well as paintings. He designs jewelry, constructs elaborate frames for his work and sometimes incorporates metalwork into his pictures; in one portrait, an otherwise two-dimensional woman sports a real brooch in her painted hair. Bayro C. is an artist, but also something of a tinkerer.

His paintings are vivid and mythic. They feature such Andean symbolic animals as horses (sometimes ridden by voluptuous nudes), bulls and condors. Bright reds and blues and sharply defined forms contrast with earth tones and abstractly patterned areas. He often works on an epic scale, but the grand compositions are grounded by intricate detail. This parallels the way he combines muscular gestures with dreamlike effects, creating paintings that appear immediate yet mysterious.