
The paintings of Elias Pena pay homage to the transcendent nature of scenes from everyday life. Intimacy found in public spaces, community and camaraderie felt in a crowd.
In each work - elderly men playing games on the street, children rushing out of school, people waiting amidst traffic - the artist’s brushstrokes narrate untold stories in a frozen mise en scène.
Figuration and abstraction, chaos and harmony - in each painting, Pena looks the instant that separates accident from chance. Going beyond representation, each scene pulls the viewer closer to the subjectivity of human consciousness: a distillation of personal experience and of a particular moment that remains open and fluid to the viewer’s interpretation.
These paintings are not about creating something new. They are about allowing the viewer to see the everyday world through transformed eyes.