Always Drawing - José Antonio Suárez Londoño | Ordovas
This Colombian artist must be a gallerist’s dream: his tiny, ornate pen and ink drawings, arranged in this exhibition in attractive rows, are deeply pretty, crafty and uplifting. Each features a tiny stamp proving ownership, just for that little extra bit of covetability; the artist, cultivating the brand, likes to be known just as “JASL”.
There are 100 drawings in all, along with 50 etchings, covering most of the smallish gallery. Repeated themes? Steam ships, maps and abstract patterns.
Suárez Londoño studied biology in his native city of Medellín (in one of the world’s all-time prettiest campuses), and there’s something of the scientist’s eye in the diagram-like depictions of animals and body parts. Even though he’s generous in the range of materials used - from charcoal to carefully delineated tea stains - there’s no false move, no loss of control.
With great craft comes relentless discipline. Suárez Londoño draws daily, and doesn’t own a computer.
Always Drawing - José Antonio Suárez Londoño is at Ordovas (London). June 7 - August 3 2019