He is an artist (Venezuela 1969) who presents a work of free abstraction, with a quality of very careful elaboration. It is a free abstraction of surfaces, which sometimes resemble foliage, crumpled papers, floors, vegetation. In its execution there is a trompe l’oeil (eye trap) because the visual impression is as if it were surfaces with volume. This effect is achieved with a careful use of lighting that allows us to optically perceive valuations of different textures. Color is another of the elements that identifies his work because he usually uses few colors in a wide range of tones with subtle harmonic combinations. His works with formats larger than one meter, broaden the perception of the visual effect. Through pictorial resources, he presents a micro world of transformed natural surfaces.

Merchán began his studies in 1984 at the Taller Libre de Arte Elbano Méndez Osuna, in Tovar in his hometown, and then between 1988 and 1993 he attended the Escuela de Artes Visuales Cristóbal Rojas in Caracas. His career is extensive with a production that has gone through different stages and themes, but always maintaining the axis of his language. He has had sustained participation in the salons and biennials and he is a member of the group of artists that has had a presence in the visual arts scene in Venezuela since the eighties. His work is part of the collection of the Banco Central de Venezuela.

Anny Bello