José Lerma
Bayamonesque
Brussels | Allard 25
March 14 – April 17, 2025
In a world where noise and commotion are increasingly prevalent, and where it seems out of fashion to not make one's presence loudly felt, José Lerma gives a face to the bystanders and the silent witnesses in the back. But only in moderation—the faces he presents to us are, after all, stripped down to their most basic features. Highly stylized and rigid, they retain only the bare essentials of facial structure in what the artist calls “the summary of a portrait.” His paintings go beyond mere representation, teetering on the edge of abstraction.
The profile paintings in Bayamonesque are a cornerstone of José Lerma’s oeuvre. Over the past decade and a half, since encountering Jean-Léon Gérôme’s ‘Reception of the Grand Condé by Louis XIV’ at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, he has been captivated by the sparse brushstrokes with which Gérôme rendered background figures. Most of Lerma’s works are created in a single session. His medium—a heavy, unwieldy blend of construction materials and acrylics—dries quickly, leaving little to no margin for error. The immediacy of his process closely aligns with his goal of capturing the quickness of a sketch.
Though the roots of Lerma’s ideas lie in the neoclassical and romantic traditions of Gérôme, he also draws inspiration from the sketch-like qualities of the Bay Area Figurative Movement and the work of Belgian artist Bram Bogart. The latter reference comes as no surprise: Bogart, a key figure in informal art, became known for his thick, cement-like canvases. Lerma holds Bogart’s impasto-rich works in high regard: “Bogart set my blueprint. I just hyper-stylized it.” As with Bogart, so too with Lerma—his plasticine-like textures evoke an almost primal, childlike urge to reach out and touch their provocative surfaces.
Bayamonesque marks the end of an era. The past fifteen to eighteen years have led to the culmination of this profile series as we know it. José Lerma sees this body of work as the conclusion of his current artistic cycle, bringing the viewer back to his homeland and the familiar faces of his past to complete this chapter. There are subtle shifts, however—the skin tones and surface colors now reflect more vivid blues, reds, and greens, lending the figures an otherworldly, almost artificial glow. They seem less illuminated by natural light and more like they exist under an entirely different spectrum.
The title of the exhibition reflects the interplay of opposites, a recurring theme throughout Lerma’s career. He grew up in Bayamón, an industrial suburb on the outskirts of Puerto Rico. Though not known for its picturesque qualities, Bayamón holds a special place in the artist’s heart, infusing this exhibition with a sense of everyday life. The quotidian nature of his hometown is made poetic by the suffix he adds to it, embodying the incongruity he delights in exploring. The profile paintings, after all, are built on a similar contrast—balancing the excess of thick impasto with the sparseness of just a few brushstrokes, and using large canvases to capture what are, essentially, sketches. Then again, the abundance of material makes a Lerma work impossible on a small scale.
The subjects, some real-life acquaintances from Lerma’s native Puerto Rico and others pure invention, are chosen with a keen eye for detail—or rather, for the lack of detail he requires them to be portrayed effectively. The artist quickly discerns whether someone lends themselves to this series based on certain defining characteristics. As Lerma himself puts it: “The abstract painter in me is, above all, drawn to certain people for specific features that can be broken down to their bare minimum as paintable elements: an expressive cowl, a striking nose, a distinctive shape of lips.” Anyone can be captured in a portrait, but only a select few can embody the essence of José Lerma’s paintings.
José Lerma (b. 1971, Sevilla, ES; lives and works in San Juan, PR) received his MFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison, US in 2002. He has had over twenty solo exhibitions at galleries such as Almine Rech, Paris, FR; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US; Kavi Gupta, Chicago, IL, US; Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, BE; and Andrea Rosen Gallery in New York, NY US, and at museums such as the Museo de Arte Puerto Rico, PR; Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, US; Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, MI, US; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, IL, US. His works are represented in numerous collections, including The Saatchi Collection in London, UK; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, US. Lerma served as an Associate Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago until from 2009 through 2023.