The erotic seems to be evaded in the works of Lara de los Reyes. Yes, the legs are judiciously exposed, vulnerable and up close but it is this closeness that de-personalizes the body parts, making them look as cold, disembodied appendages.

A sense of violation or violence is evoked: we sift through the brutal undertones, bits and pieces of physical evidence that will point to the antecedent scenario. Is it rape or merely wistful sleep?

But no answer is forthcoming. The figures in a way are static, indicative of fatigue. They are beyond movement; they are resistant to any form of outside influence. Their overwhelming presence on the canvas negates any chance to detect a life, a subjectified layer to what we see. They are immovably crepuscular.

We then see them as metaphors, as agents of meaning. In the context of the contemporary place and time, what do these bodies transmit? How does the artist’s idea of the body fulfill the bodies we see on the canvas? What is violently transgressed? The tension in her works accrues to a kind of hook: we keep on asking.