l concerns. Jimenez’s talent for composition is obvious; despite working largely in black and white, and with few compositional elements, he achieves a great sense of depth and movement. Dramatic directional forces guide the viewer through the paintings, effortlessly drawing the eye from point to point across the surface of the work. Much of this is due to his texturally rich, carefully nuanced backgrounds; rather than a flat monotone, Jimenez varies the tonal qualities and his brushwork to create a constantly-shifting picture plane. The weight of these planes, rather than being consistent and static, is distributed throughout the work by sweeping brushstrokes and careful variations of colour. Having moved away from the vestiges of figurative painting in his earlier work, Jimenez is now focused on primarily abstract, metaphysical concepts, exploring these ideas with the sensitivity and subtlety that they demand. However, these lofty themes are deftly balanced within the work; there is never an overt sense of ideology or pedagogy. Instead, Jimenez allows the formal qualities of his work to express his conceptual concerns organically, inviting interpretation rather than demanding it. His recent work makes effective use of a minimalistic approach with an expressive painting style to evoke ideas about creation, life and death, relying only on an abstract lexicon of vague object-forms and rich, mutable colours. The movements of abstract forms, such as suggestions of birds or leaves, may imply meaning, but never dictate it. Similarly, the titles of his works—often referring to nature, seasons, the passage of time, andconcerns about the spirit and the body—remain open for interpretation. Ultimately, Jimenez sees his role as an artist as a collector, preserver and transformer of memory, emotion and experience. His works resonate at a physical and spiritual level, richly evocative while remaining universal, unbound by any regionalist cultural concerns. Jimenez’s work may be seen to express a spiritual or psychic landscape, populated by the transitory movements of ideas and memories. The richness and range of his work connotes the workings of the human mind and we can interpret his paintings as subconscious projections of inner states. In this way, the viewer experiences a sense of mystery and a desire to explore the full depths of the image—a desire that is richly rewarded.
