Lino Lago is a Spanish painter whose work brings classical portraiture into dialogue with contemporary abstraction. Working primarily in oil, he draws on the visual language of European art history, reworking familiar portrait forms through interruption, concealment and graphic mark-making. Lago began to explore the juxtapositions that arose between the formal realism of classic art and the abstract aesthetics of contemporary art in earlier projects, and he continues to place traditional images alongside abstract gestures. His paintings consider how images acquire meaning over time, and how historical references continue to shape the way contemporary art is understood.

The distinctly bold abstract lines disturb the conventional portrait form, imitating the mark of a digital brush. But doing so, Lago re-claims traditional artistic methods and, in a way, critiques the contemporary art world’s notions of operating outside of any historical context. Instead, he alludes to the history of art. His distinct minimalist use of line and abstract shape succeeds in creating beautifully striking works as well as discussing theoretical concepts of reality.