Oscar Riquelme brings "Herd Behavior," a series which deals with comparable animal and human impulses. Swirling schools of fish and following flocks of sheep shed light on man's tendency toward group mentality. Mankind has always been a pack, but there are still marks of uniqueness in each of us. While humans often act as part of a homogenous society, we still possess an individual consciousness and have choices.
Riquelme wants to focus on people's urge to act in the instant. All groups can get swept up in a moment of action. He tries to push the paintings to capture that particular second in which the action is made. These sparse canvases portray fuzzy, slightly confused looking sheep going along with the grain. Chunks of burlap embedded in layers of gesso on panel add to the wooly texture of the animals. The images are built up to emphasize the outermost layer of the painting. "I want the image to be about the present, a snapshot about now," Riquelme describes. "The texture and detail helps you to focus on the immediate. The background is flat, leaving only the underpainting or afterimage. It is not unimportant, but it is not the present."
Within the group, though, conformity is not necessarily the norm. In a six-foot canvas depicting a school of brilliantly colored fish, there is room for variation. Although part of the conforming swirl, the individual fish can change directions. They are still part of the swarming mass, but they are each in different states and stages of their personal journeys.
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