In the world of neo-surrealism, a reclusive, little-known Mexican artist named Enrique Chavarría is gaining noteriety nearly a decade after his death. "Enrique Chavarría: Surrealism and the Fantastic", a new exhibit at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas, showcases 28 paintings by the reclusive artist, who seldom exhibited work during his lifetime.



While he may not be widely known, former Florida first lady Columba Bush is a fan. A single collector and personal friend of the artist--Dr. David Prensky--owns the artist’s entire body of work, which was first exhibited in public only 5 years ago.

Chavarria’s work is often difficult to interpret, but an article in the Dallas Morning News gives us a taste:

When Mr. Chavarría does a self-portrait, he depicts himself as a wooden town with a face for a door. A woman with a butterfly mask plays a harp strung with a spider web in an upper window. The tower stands on an unstable stone jetty and a tree trunk with human legs rides a unicycle in the foreground.

It’s a world that teems with creatures of the imagination. There are snakes with human heads, a boat with a female torso for a sail, a walking broomstick with a winged woman for its body. There are demons and angels, Christian saints and alchemists, and, in what must be one of the best titles in some time, Goblins Fishing for Comets.

See more of Chavarría’s artwork here.