Color and Light Converge in Mesmerizing Works by Venezuelan Artist Juvenal Ravelo

By using metal sheets and mirror fragments, Ravelo is able to create highly reflective, pieces that absorb and play with light. His works combine precisely cut parts that range in shape and materials but are put together in intriguing mosaic-like patchworks that are impeccably arranged and ordered. Fragmentación de la luz y el color (2014) is mostly vertical; at first glance it looks like a spliced-up piano, albeit with keys in shades of yellow and gray. All seems to be neatly rendered and technically uniform, until one comes across a little set of black lines that are scattered throughout. This unexpected break in the overall composition imbues the work with a scintillating, hyper-optical effect, like a little reward for especially detail-oriented viewers.

In another work by the same name, a steady stream of black-and-white stripes expands horizontally, interrupted intermittently by colorful, origami-like shapes. Sections of the work seem to pop off the page and into three dimensions—and indeed they do, as the surface is actually raised. With this innovative technique, Ravelo demonstrates his skill for working around material constraints and developing interesting combinations of color and form.