The King's Rose

Cruz Jimenez’s latest series departs from the densely worked surfaces of previous work to embrace a minimal, line-focused style. The scroll-like forms of The Kings’ Rose present washi ink on fields of crisp white paper, with simple, deftly-rendered ink forms that resonate in their clarity.

Rather than subtly emerging from Jimenez’s negative space, which appears with a weight and depth of its own, this imagery appears in brilliant high contrast: clear black on bright white. The paper substrate lends the work immediacy, as if the forms have been lifted from the artist’s sketchbook; re-worked into drapes of flowing imagery. The process of sketching and study-making seems to have migrated from the notebook to these large-scale works, indicating Jimenez’s confidence and maturity in controlling and direct the ink flowing onto the surface.

While embracing simplicity the artist has not altogether abandoned his love of texture and layering, with subtle inclusions of gold paint, collaged hair and pencil under-drawing altering the effects of his surfaces. But The King’s Rose shifts his drawn images from implication to clarity; the surety of the process moving Jimenez’s hand fully into the light.