PRESS- Selected Excerpts

 

Rocky Mountain News , Review: "Grounded", Mary V. Chandler, February 1st, 2008 (full review)

"Ferreyra's show of paintings is as much about education as it is aesthetics. He deconstructs his subjects into blocks that stretch to the past to recall Cubism while giving a nod to the pixillation of today's digital world.

Related preparatory sketches of the mountain scenes explain his choice of coloration and composition, a sophisticated paint-by-numbers scheme laid out for us to see."

 

Westword, Review: "Grounded", Michael Paglia, January 17, 2008 (full review)

"...Interestingly, Ferreyra's landscapes are more naturalistic when viewed from across the room instead of up close. This is because in their mind's eye, viewers meld the different-colored shapes into broad areas of hybrid hues. In that way, the colors turn into forms, allowing the mountains to come into focus, as in "Continuum 1," a marvelous oil on canvas. All of the paintings in the show are from the "Continuum" series, and each has been joined by its preparatory drawing. I was surprised that Ferreyra even did drawings — I'd have guessed he'd use a laser print as a study — but there's no denying that these lyrical works on paper are very cool on their own."

 

Westword, Review: Lui Ferreyra: Paintings, Michael Paglia, June, 8, 2006 (full review)

"Recent pieces by a young Denver artist who is surely one of the up-and-comers in the realm of contemporary representational art are being showcased in Lui Ferreyra: Paintings, in the front space at Sandy Carson Gallery. Ferreyra has exhibited in Denver over the past several years; during that time, he's arrived at a signature style.

Ferreyra shatters the surfaces of his works by breaking them up into hard-edged shards of color. The images are thus made up of flat areas of colors that are meticulously assembled to convey the topics of the pictures. The effect recalls paint-by-numbers paintings, digitized reductions from computer animation and, of course, cubism. But this final comparison is the most superficial of the lot: Although Ferreyra does cut his pictures into puzzle pieces, as the cubists did, he doesn't do it to annihilate the forms he's depicting, but to reinforce the formal components. In this way, he's able to arrive at fairly credible renditions of his worldly subjects, which, at Sandy Carson, are mostly people rendered as portrait heads and busts."

 

Westword, Review: Go Figure, Michael Paglia, May 2005 (full review)

"...Biety installed most of the show so that one artist's work leads to the next -- a typical approach for a group effort. But in the case of the last artist I'll mention in Go Figure, Lui Ferreyra, Biety has given him his own room. I can see why the gallery director gave the emerging artist this kind of star treatment: Ferreyra's paintings are very cool. He cuts the figures up into geometric shapes and then paints the shapes so that they convey the three-dimensional contours of the figure and the background. He also uses novel compositions. For example, in "Survey," an oil on panel, the young man's face is shown in profile at the bottom left corner. His idiosyncratic style looks very hip, like a cross between cubism and paint-by-numbers.

Ferreyra, who's part of a crowd of young representational painters working in Denver -- most of whom studied at CU-Boulder -- is just starting to get his work out there in the exhibition world. He's new to Sandy Carson, and I think that snagging him was a very smart move."

 

Art Papers, Review: Cadence, Troy Briere, July 2004

"...Potential, it seems, are what the figures in Lui Ferreyra’s paintings seem to lack--- potential energy, potential movement, potential action. They rest. Passively inhabiting the canvasses, their skin and clothing exploded into planes like a topographical map or Kansas as seen from a jetliner, these personages seem caught between those of Lucong and Magyar in their intent. Private, quiet moments are captured with a disjointed bitmapping; the effect of which is to make foreign the familiar. In this way Ferreyra’s controlled work acts as a salient counterpoint to the rest of the show.

Although these artists approach painting from life in different fashions, all seem to believe, rightly or wrongly, in art’s capacity to emulate life, as a mimetic device. All work from photographs, all deal with surface in an aggressive manner--- brushstrokes plainly visible, planar breakdown surfaced--- and all bring to the fore the contents of moments overlooked. An incalculable look, a hand gesture, dimmed light, muted colors; all ring the significance bell to someone, somewhere. Sympathy for the figures and empathy for their plight--- or lack thereof--- resonate in these works and despite the medium’s shortcomings, Magyar, Lucong and Ferreyra all seem content to continue trying. The results are worth the effort.

 

Westword, Review: Cadence, Michael Paglia, June 2004 (full review)

"...Opposite the Magyars are a group of remarkable paintings by Lui Ferreyra that depict people sleeping. These paintings all share a brooding palette and are really exceptional."