Artists of Note | Guilloume

Faceless expressions

Guilloume, Windows of the Soul, oil, 36 x 48.

This story was featured in the October 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2014 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story!

The beauty of art is in its wide variety of styles, from representational renditions of everyday objects to impressionism and abstraction. Painter and sculptor Guilloume uses this to his advantage, combining the figure with surrealist abstraction to create his self-described “bolismo” style. The 
Colombian-born and New Mexico-based artist has worked for over three decades on this style, which places featureless groups of figures together, incorporating circles and southwestern colors. “I describe my work as magical surrealism, and my figures don’t have features in the faces,” he says. “When you have features you start to make differences, and I want to talk about similarities.”

It was during his first year at the Bellas Artes Institute in Medellin, Colombia, that Guilloume developed this signature style for his oil paintings. But sculpture attracted his attention, too. After moving to the United States, he met sculptor Ralph Roybal in the early 1990s and 
studied the lost-wax process of bronze sculpture for three years. The artist views his painting and sculpture as two halves of a whole, finding balance in life from working in both mediums. “I want to show people together,” he says. “I know that we are all different, but when we’re together is when we make the best things for all of us.” —Joe Kovack

Guilloume is represented by Xanadu Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ; Henington Fine Art Gallery, Santa Fe, NM; Pippin Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM; Howell Gallery Fine Art, Oklahoma City, OK; and Simon Gallery Fine Art, Tucson, AZ.

Featured in the October 2014 issue of Southwest Art magazine–click below to purchase:
Southwest Art October 2014 print issue or digital download Or subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss a story!