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DIOGENES BALLESTER

BIOGRAPHY Diogenes Ballester was born in La Playa de Ponce, Puerto Rico. He received his M.F.A. from the University of WisconsinİMadison, his Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Catholic University of Puerto Rico and a Certificate of Fine Arts from the Miguel Pou Visual Arts School. He also received training in printmaking at the Printmaking Workshop in New York City. In 1995, the Washington Square Gallery in San Francisco, California organized an exhibition of his paintings entitled "Spirits." In the catalog Shifra M. Goldman wrote "Ballester conceives his work in terms of monumental images that push at the borders of his piece, large or small, like that of a frustrated muralist. Many of his paintings are fragments of much bigger ideas that seem not to be exhausted when he finishes creating one. In fact, his working technique is additive; the paintings grow from one sheet of paper or linen to two, four, eight or sixteen, covering an entire wall in his studio. In the process of growth, he changes and overpaints what is no longer compatible with the total composition. The artist's medium is physical and visceral. He employs the ancient and difficult technique of encausticİhot wax painting that comes down to us from ancient Greece, but vanished during the Medieval and Renaissance periods in favor of tempera and oil paint. Revived in the 18th century, and again in the 20th, its effects, its visual and physical properties, and its range of textural and color possibilities, make it highly suitable for contemporary styles not adequately served by traditional oil painting or the synthetics. Molten colors are applied with bristle brushes and palette knives; the surface can be opaque or transparent, can be textured in many ways, or can be lightly polished with a cloth to bring out a dull, satiny sheen." Mr. Ballester's encaustic paintings also were seen in 1994 at Carib Art Gallery in New York City in a solo exhibition entitled "Recent Paintings," and in 1993, at the Museum of the Americas in Old San Juan when Rojo y Negro Gallery presented a survey of ten years of Ballester's paintings entitled "Spiritual Celebration." In 1991, Ballester presented "Abstractions of Portraits and Allegories," a painting exhibition at the Catholic University of Puerto Rico where he was honored by the Law School and the Mayor of Ponce who proclaimed him "the artist of the City of Ponce." Previous solo exhibitions include: "Vulnerability," 1990, a drawing exhibition at the Interchurch Center Art Gallery in New York; "Volition," 1989, a paintingİinstallation where poets interacted through their poetry with the large black paintings and altar pieces at the Taller Boricua Gallery; and "In Salute to the VII San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Printmaking," 1986, an exhibition of mural paintings and large prints. In 1998, Ballester was president of the jury of the XII San Juan Biennial of Latin American and Caribbean Printmaking at El Arsenal de la Marina, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, San Juan, Puerto Rico. He also received the Arana Award from the Arana Foundation to paint in Paris, France where he will be working in 1999. In 1997, he received an Honorable Mention from the The Puerto Rican Association of Art Critics, The Painting Prize from the Institute of Puerto Rico in New York and was selected illustrious Poncenian in his hometown of Ponce, Puerto Rico. In 1996, he was awarded a Gold Medal at the "Third Caribbean and Central America Biennial of Painting," celebrated at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo. He also has been awarded the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for Printmaking/Drawing/Artist Books, a medal at the International Art CompetitionİİNew York and received an honorable mention at the San Juan Biennial. His work is part of the following permanent collections: The Contemporary Art Museum of Chamalieres, France; The Modern Art Museum, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; The Bronx Museum for the Arts, Bronx, New York; Cooperativa de Seguros Multiples, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico; El Museo del Barrio, New York, New York; Financiero Banks of Puerto Rico; Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico; Instituto per la Cultura e L'Arte, Catania, Italy; Latino Institute, Chicago, Illinois; Mobil Oil Inc., Carolina, Puerto Rico; The Ponce Museum for the Arts, Ponce, Puerto Rico.

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