Fanciful Tales of the Ordinary

Of the larger works, Prestos para la orquesta has all the trappings of a classic Boldó, with musicians’ faces, limbs, instruments and signature stylistic hats and outfits all mobbing the canvas. It’s akin to a jazz ensemble discovered by accident in a cellar bar, so packed with life that the audience (and the viewer of the work) is right in with the band, unable to leave the room until some future, yet-to-be-determined moment when the band explodes, rather than ends its set. Prestos para la orquesta is a mixed media piece which refuses to let go of the spectator, and evidences the remarkable hold which the work of Santiago Boldó regularly exerts on the viewer.

Often when diminutive works are organized in series in galleries, there is a feeling of the rationale being that the pieces are too small to stand alone, and that as such they are juxtaposed with others in order to gain a viewing purchase in the context of an all-encompassing wall. The gathering together of Boldó’s smaller pieces, however, allow for multiple legibilities. Certainly, these can still be observed individually, or in the vertical pairings in which they are organized, but they can just as equally be read as concurrent short stories in a collection, or even — stepping back — a vast array of faces staring back at the viewer. Galleries, of course, are famously silent, except for when they are not, but here the sound in the work is at once highly evident and yet plugged, busting to get out, to blast through the glass, the lens, or the social fabric which keeps us trapped on the other side.

"Prestos para la orquesta" ("Ready for the orchestra") by Santiago Boldó.

There is a palpable tightness to the paintings and illustrations of Santiago Boldó. Whether in the smaller pieces that comprise some of his many series or in the larger stand-alone works, extensive and elaborate life is packed into the frame.

It’s something of a signature feature of his representations, in fact, highly recognisable not just in its impactful use of hyper-real colors, shapes and figures, but also in its tone, as though a photographer had journeyed through innumerable figurative landscapes of the Mexican soul (and beyond), and gathered all present life into a portrait, before clicking the camera shutter. It’s joyful, magical and affecting all at once — the kind of artistry that draws you back for another look; that rewards companionship; and always, always reveals more in subsequent viewings. Like the favorite film that never lets you down, it’s art to keep close, that reaffirms the innate, irrepressible spirit.

This August, in the heart of Queretaro and running for a month from August 20, a collection of Boldó’s work from 2025 and 2026 comes together at the Galeria Libertad, with more than 50 artworks on show. Titled "Un día mas — Fabulaciones de los cotidiano", ("Another day — Fanciful tales of the ordinary"), the exhibition showcases the playful tenors and mythologies which are emblematic of his expressionistic style, and which have given the artist a real purchase in Mexico’s contemporary art scene, in particular in the heart of the country.

And this, perhaps, is one of the greatest strengths of all across the work of Santiago Boldó, of having us wonder if these worlds in the frame, in which we catch but a click of an instant, are all-the-more real and honest than our own. Beyond being functional paintings and illustrations, they are portals to the world we chose at some time in our pasts not to inhabit, but which, through Boldó’s paintings and illustrations, we can continue to live vicariously, in precise moments of union when the relationship between a work and its viewer allows for nothing less than a change in lived dimensions.

"Hombre mirando un pájaro carpintero" ("A man watching a woodpecker").

Contact

Questions or tips? Reach out anytime.

info@artinsanmiguel.com

© 2026. All rights reserved.

Join Art in San Miguel

Stay close to the scene - get fresh stories and event updates.