reviews

Paul Vickery - Past Imperfect Future Tense

Messineo Art Projects and Wyman Contemporary is a gallery located in the heart of Chelsea dedicated to raise awareness of the work of contemporary European and American artists. And precisely there, at 511, 25th Street in Manhattan, the latest work by British artist Paul Vickery with his exhibition entitled Past Imperfect Future Tense, is currently on display.

An artistic approach, and revelation of men who belong to "bandas" (Spanish for "gangs") and whose bodies become a canvas on which they express their secrets, sins and redemption.

In English they are called "outsiders" and a Spanish dictionary defines them as intruders, weirdos. In a society where the "look" more than ever, defines who you are and where you belong, Vickery goes into the world of these men who want to be seen but paradoxically, they live under the scrutiny of society.

Men who use their body as the canvas on which they document their life experiences, backgrounds, love, beliefs, hidden dreams and of course, their misdemeanors. Men whose bodies are the means of atonement and repentance.

Paul Vickery, through his photography illuminates, humanizes and stripped their models of stigma playing with this ambivalence between the secret and the exhibitionist.

A photographer who perfectly controls the viewer's perception and that, rather than provoke our discredit, he places us in the position of voyeurs and encourages us to decipher the images from the light and dark mazes of the wearer's skin.

Alejandra Gaxiola