digital catalog:
When There Is No Frontier is an exhibition of 59 fantastical paintings in oil, watercolor and coffee, spanning the last six years of Miami-based painter Reynier Llanes’ career. The work stems from the artist’s fascination with the creation of parallel universes as we escape into our imagined worlds, seeking respite and comfort from our ever-changing and sometimes daunting realities. Responding to shared ongoing crises that creep into our everyday consciousness, sometimes leaving us feeling small and afraid – a global pandemic and controversy over social reform – Llanes gifts viewers with a painted series of magical landscapes, still lifes and portraits into which they can temporarily escape and be wonderfully amused.
Llanes taps into the positive outcomes that have surfaced amidst the chaos of the last year, like the ushering in of new methods of communication and creativity, the time to connect with loved ones and a renewed connection with nature. “I find myself trying to express the inexpressible with this series,” states Llanes. “With this series, I am taking realities we are facing and juxtaposing them with the ‘what ifs.’ The parallel worlds in my paintings are dream worlds …sometimes I am left wondering which one is real.”
Reynier Llanes (b. Cuba, 1985) studied art in his hometown of Pinar del Rio at the city’s school of art (Instructores de Arte) under the tutelage renowned Cuban artist, Juan Miguel Suárez. In 2007, LIanes emigrated to the United States, first settling in Naples, FL, and then in Charleston, SC, where he was an artist-in-residence at Jonathan Green Studios. Nourished by the rich, southern culture of the Lowcountry, Llanes’ art career flourished with opportunities to exhibit at museums and art centers, including a 2013 exhibition of his coffee paintings – monochromatic watermedia paintings in which espresso coffee is employed as paint – here in Myrtle Beach. In 2015, Llanes relocated to Miami, FL, where he currently resides. Llanes’ work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries along the east coast. His paintings are included in numerous museum collections, including the Denver Art Museum (Denver, CO), Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College (Orlando, FL), Snite Museum of Art (South Bend, IN), Polk Museum of Art (Lakeland, FL), Arkansas Arts Center, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (Little Rock, AK), Museum of Art – DeLand (DeLand, FL), Morris Museum of Art (Augusta, GA) and the Franklin G. Burroughs – Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum (Myrtle Beach, SC).
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virtual tour:
© 2016 Franklin G. Burroughs • Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum
Myrtle Beach’s Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum strives to be one of the finest visual arts museums in the Carolinas. With 11 galleries that change throughout the year, Myrtle Beach’s only art museum offers exhibitions featuring paintings, textiles, sculpture, photography, video, ceramics, assemblage, collage and more. A visit to the Art Museum’s exhibitions can be enhanced by its lively programming, including artist receptions, tours, lectures, workshops and classes for both adults and children.
