Enrique Machado
Works & Biography - Born in Miami, Fl 1985
Enrique Machado is known for his innovative technique of using silicon, resin, acrylic, and oil on wood. His work reflects the essential role of water, a resource that sustains life, through both material and concept. The fluidity of his medium evokes the dynamic and ever-changing nature of water, while his lines, inspired by stock charts, represent the unpredictable currents and the flow of life itself.
Enrique Machado: Delving into Elemental Archetypes
Enrique Machado has emerged as a prominent figure in Miami's contemporary art scene, captivating collectors, critics, and art enthusiasts worldwide. Recognized by independent art critic Carlos Suarez De Jesus and notable figures like Jorge Luis Gutierrez, Director of Triennial Miami, Machado's innovative style gained widespread attention in the August 2014 edition of Miami New Times Magazine, in the feature "Summertime Art Geniuses."
For Machado, art is more than just expression; it represents a fusion of scientific exploration and metaphorical depth. Operating as both an artist and a scientist, he uses a distinctive abstract style to provoke reflection on the significance of water. Based in Miami, a vibrant melting pot of cultures, Machado draws inspiration from the city's diverse global influences.
Using silicone and resin—ubiquitous synthetic materials—Machado creates a visual narrative that resonates within contemporary art. A graduate of the prestigious New World School of the Arts in Miami, he skillfully merges painting and sculpture. His works, infused with the tactile qualities of silicone and resin, are poignant reflections on the essential role of water in sustaining life.
Enrique Machado has emerged as a prominent figure in Miami's contemporary art scene, captivating collectors, critics, and art enthusiasts worldwide. Recognized by independent art critic Carlos Suarez De Jesus and notable figures like Jorge Luis Gutierrez, Director of Triennial Miami, Machado's innovative style gained widespread attention in the August 2014 edition of Miami New Times Magazine, in the feature "Summertime Art Geniuses."
For Machado, art is more than just expression; it represents a fusion of scientific exploration and metaphorical depth. Operating as both an artist and a scientist, he uses a distinctive abstract style to provoke reflection on the significance of water. Based in Miami, a vibrant melting pot of cultures, Machado draws inspiration from the city's diverse global influences.
Using silicone and resin—ubiquitous synthetic materials—Machado creates a visual narrative that resonates within contemporary art. A graduate of the prestigious New World School of the Arts in Miami, he skillfully merges painting and sculpture. His works, infused with the tactile qualities of silicone and resin, are poignant reflections on the essential role of water in sustaining life.
Enrique Machado, Moonlight, Resin and Silicone on Wood, 2024, 62 x 86 In.
Enrique Machado, Blue and Gray Shade, Resin, Silicone, Acrylic and Oil on Wood, 48H x 96W In.
Enrique Machado - Archetypes on the dream of elements
- “If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” — ...
"To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon, to become part of depth of infinity, such is the destiny of man that finds its image in the destiny of water." Gaston Bachelard. Water and Dreams. 1942.
Art is a creative experience that merges the alchemy of science and the metaphoric journey of art. One of the Jungian archetypes in mythology is the artist-scientist, a unique process of abstraction if the human mind. Within that experimental approach is the work of Enrique Machado, an emerging contemporary artist that has placed his work imaginary in the coordinates of Miami. A global city with an archipelago of nationalities and cultures that become a unique urban setting for the evident and unavoidable intensity of global relations and cultural exchanges of a broad geographical scale. Silicone a synthetic compound, inert, with polymers together with carbon, hydrogen, oxygen constitutes an ever-present component in everyday life with no marked harmful effects on organisms in the environment. That is the experimental expressive territory of Enrique, alchemy with one of science, modern universal materials (silicone) with the visual narrative of contemporary art (painting) Enrique, a sculpture-artist that emerged from the prestigious New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL. and who crossed the border of painting, is, however a creative mind which is constantly thinking on the possibilities of the three-dimensional. His paintings marked by the trace, texture and feel of the silicone, each of his paintings seem to follow a plan, every artistic action concerning his silicone paintings seem to descend from his universe of concepts and define territories within the frame. These territories created by his silicone traces, forms and color patterns possess their own history and vitality, their personal magnetism, in reaction, placing the viewer beyond the bounds of functional logic.
Enrique’s paintings do not hold autonomy of any kind, the space he has conquered takes the shape of aproposal of expressive methods. The pattern of the spiral and the labyrinth [ancestral symbols of mythological and religious significance] in many of his paintings bring the no temporal value of unexpected symbols. As in the case of the painting “Tunnel Wave #2."
His art is a dialectic confrontation in the world of virtual assumptions and the physical appeal of things. As the artist expresses; “I try to communicate the language of chaos and balanced simplicity explored through the movement found in the ocean, waves, and water. I form textures that exude clashing forces. A metaphor for constant change and battle. Topics of persistence, power, overwhelming, drowning, and destruction exaggerate with controlled clumps and goop of overlaid piles of dripping silicone patterns."Enrique’s use of silicone places traces and patterns central to his art, becoming essential in his artwork when one loses the measure of the dimension, but still the artist revises the principle of composition as order and intertwine, which he accomplishes on extensive ample surfaces or in environmental urban
murals.
Other artists have approached the silicone qualities as a base for their work. Such as, London-based sculptor Ron Mueck or Sam Jinks an Australian visual artist, both from a hyper-realist conceptual approach. Cosmo Wenman in the stream of reproducing fragments of art history combined with his contemporary proposals; and Daniel Widrig, a London based artist, moving in similar directions of Enrique. Where sculpture, topographic expressions, design and architecture seem to be related exploration fields. His departure from a particular material as a tool for expression is not an easy task, it’s a risky decision, but is also an identity matter. The artist’s decision to work the silicone can be a rewarding experimental, challenging experience, but it can also become a dead end expression tool. However, the experimental
character of the artist is rooted in his approach to life, his living context and his conceptual framework, as he states; “My work is about the organization and control of the materials. My goal is to further explore the esthetic characteristics of these materials and to communicate a new concept of textured art expressing movement and rich visual patterns within the study of water and its rhythm."
To write about art is always a complex risk. Where questions of cultural identity, artistic trends, migration, transnational influences, the local/global concern and our growing consciousness of a networked social environment are just a few issues of the environment in which contemporary art maps, how and why our cultural values are formed and transformed. Writing about an emerging artist is
much more complicated since the extended body of work with its strength and integrity is to be established, but is still part of an ongoing process, a journey into the future where its long-term ramifications are to develop.
In the case of Enrique Machado, his art is part of an ongoing experiment process. His studio a creative lab, where the exploration of materials, textures, color and search for a balanced expression are vital to his life context in which water, light, human communication and organic flow within the segments of the art that he creates. His Red Crash series of paintings is an example. Talent, education of talent and capacity to communicate, is a way to define the character of a real artist. Machado has gone through the path of educating his artistic talent through a comprehensive training. It started at South Miami Middle School (Magnet Art School), the prestigious Design and Architecture High School, a graduate from the renowned New World School of the Arts in 2004; he then was awarded a
scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. His understanding of communicating through art implies that artists produce knowledge prompted by the constant change in the context of cross-cultural interactions. His perception of art history as a key referential tool permits him to study Van Gogh and Jeff Koons in a symmetrical relation of experiences of intense communicative nuance and complexity.
He tries to learn from history in parallel to the world he lives in, half local, half global…
His studio, the experiments and research, he works with, departing from silicone as an essential material are his vital artistic actions. Talking with this young artist about his aspirations and visions of his work he expresses that his work with the surface and the silicone does somehow not want to do what all other painters have done before him. Similar to a great modern artist like Jackson Pollock, Machado seems to search the path of an unorthodox approach to painting unconventional pictures. That is his challenge. In the apocalyptic vision of XXI century, frantic environmentalists alert us that the city of Miami will be underwater in a few years, swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean. More discreet environmental science researchers explain that changes are occurring and that like any other oceanfront port city; Miami might be affected by alterations by the masses of water. In a decade marked by an overflow of over-simplistic information, a world of digital performance and spectacle, Enrique’s metaphor on Miami, on water, on movement, abstraction and imagination make its balanced presence through his artwork, with his Wave Series, the Crash Series and his Running Water Series. After all Enrique Machado is Miami, is water, is the environment and urban diversity, is about looking for a center in things. Enrique is about the exercise of viewing and discovering the possibility of looking again with no rush, calmly in peace, bringing out all the necessary questions that his visual metaphors bring to our eyes. His energetic but subtle paintings call for reflection bending it towards its force. In this context, I am referring to the simple fact that in the last decade’s art and visual culture seem to have undeniably abandoned the concepts of harmony and balance that for centuries have privileged art aesthetic experience. Machado seems to have understood this before anything else, and he seems to
warn us that far more simply art is a way to dialogue with that which exists. As a young artist that is his challenge. Like mute poems, the Miami artist evocative water waves, movements and turns resonate with suggestiveness without explicitly revealing their meanings.
Jorge Luis Gutierrez
Museologist/Curator
BIOGRAPHY - PERMANENTLY REPRESENTED BY THE ALDO CASTILLO GALLERY
Enrique Machado, a sculpture-artist that emerged from the prestigious New World School of the Arts in Miami, FL. and who crossed the border of painting, is, however a creative mind which is constantly thinking on the possibilities of the three-dimensional. His paintings marked by the trace, texture and feel of the silicone, each of his paintings seem to follow a plan, every artistic action concerning his silicone paintings seem to descend from his universe of concepts and define territories within the frame.
Having started his extensive art education as early as the fourth grade, it wasn’t until 2007 that he discovered a new passion for a certain material called silicone. The artist was intrigued by it’s slick texture and the organic strings of rubber. Naturally he combined his passion for painting with his curiosity of silicone and traded in the paintbrush for a caulk-gun.
Enrique Machado is among one of Miami’s New generation of upcoming young talents. He has gained local attention from collectors, critics, and art fairs. He has had essays written by independent art critic Carlos Suarez De Jesus, Triennial Miami’s Director/ Museum Director/ Curator Jorge Luis Gutierrez and has had an article on his unique style featured in a August 2014 issue of the Miami New Times Magazine titled “ Summertime Art Geniuses”.
Machado has shown at Spectrum Miami Art Fair (Art Basel Week), Coral Gables Museum, West Palm Beach Armory Art Center, LMNT Gallery, Gallery 212, 1310 Gallery, The Hangar Gallery, Ave 74 Gallery, Flagler Art Space gallery, and Buena Vista Gallery.
Educational Background
2006, Kansas City Art Institute, Sculpture, KC,MO
2004, New World School of the Arts, Fine Art, Miami, FL
Solo and Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2024 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2023 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2023 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2022 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2022 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2021 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2021 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2021 Art Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2019 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2019 Spectrum Miami Art Fair, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2018 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2018 Spectrum Miami Art Fair, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2017 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2017 Spectrum Miami Art Fair, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2016 Art Spot Miami, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL
2016 Aldo Castillo Gallery, Estero, FL
2016 Spectrum Miami Art Fair, Aldo Castillo Gallery, Midtown Miami, FL
2015 Sea Fair Miami Mega Yatch, Texture, Irreversible, Miami, FL
2015 MIPAC (Miami Institute Private Art Collection) - Four Seasons Brickell, FL
2015 Cavalli Miami, Miami Beach, FL
2014 Spectrum Miami Art Fair, Midtown Miami, FL
2014 Proof, Miami, FL
2014 Armory Art Center, (Sea Rising), West Palm Beach, Fl
2014 Gallery 212, Miami, FL
2014 LMNT Gallery, Miami, FL
2014 PGA National Resort, West Palm Beach, FL
2014 TSL Lounge Art Walk, Miami, FL
2014 Secret Garden Art Walk Exhibit, Miami, FL
2013 Gallery 212, (Art Basel Showcase), Miami, FL
2013 Gallery 212, (Fall Exhibition), Miami, FL
2013 Gallery 1310, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
2013 Sunset Harbor Yacht Club, Miami Beach, FL
2013 The Hangar Gallery, Miami, FL
2012 The Hangar Gallery, ( Art Basel Exhibition), Miami, FL
2012 Space Lighting, (Art Basel Exhibition), Miami, FL
2012 Gallery 212, (Art Basel Showcase), Miami, FL
2012 Bleach, Miami, FL
2012 Ave 74 Gallery, Miami, FL
2012 Tree House, Miami Beach, FL
2012 Blank Canvas Studios, Miami, FL
2011 Flagler Art Space Gallery,Miami, FL
2010 Buena Vista Gallery, Miami, FL
