“I am searching for poetry. Poetry is one of the clues that guides us through the intricate maze,” says Oscar Manuel Vargas. “Where are we from? Who are we? Where are we going? – I want these ancient questions to be in the mind of the viewers. Through the study of the Surrealist movement, I discovered an infinite way to explore. I have concluded that everyday reality is surrealism. If we want to keep our brain alive and sane, art is the effective exercise. Each art work of mine is a page of an explorer’s log book.”

Oscar was born in Colombia in 1960. Initially a student of architecture at Javeriana University in Bogotá, he later started taking painting and drawing classes and studied in studios and workshops run by Colombian painter David Manzur and Colombian sculptor Augusto Ardila. Since 1988, Oscar has dedicated all his time to art. He came to the US in 1993 and became an American citizen. He lives with my wife in Deerfield Beach, Florida, close to the ocean they both love.

Oscar admires and is influenced by European masters Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí and Marcel Duchamp but his native country also has a big role to play in his art. “Colombia is full of mythology, it is part of our culture. Surrealism and fantasy are every where,” he says. “Gabriel García Márquez made it well-known in his novels. David Manzur, my art teacher is also influenced by this atmosphere. Studying the Surrealist art movement, I realised the universality of the human psychological delusion.”

Oscar’s art is a kind of metaphysical travelogue. Full of portals and staircases, arches and pillars, tiled platforms and mysterious dark spaces around and within which navigators walk, sail and fly to and fro. Sometimes a little confused yet always determined to solve the puzzles of existence.

More on Oscar’s website (www.oscarmanuelv.com), blog (www.oscarmanuelv.blogspot.com) and Saatchi Art page (www.saatchiart.com/oscarmanuel).