Moving between order, chance, freedom, and control, and influenced by informalist artists like Tàpies, Dubuffet, and Fautrier, Labás gives no role to a possible pictorial mass in order to give the maximum respect to his materials and textures. Some colors in these abstract paintings appear by frottage, and others by using water dyes or real dirt. However, for Labás the materials themselves are already paint, and scratches on them are too. In any case, it is never about “metaphysical sceneries,” but the terrain of the working space.

Labás began using his current method of painting after a long fascination with the beauty of the decaying walls and surfaces of his city. Drawn also to graffiti, ultimately the walls themselves won out for inspiration.

To quote the artist referring to how he gets these effects in the studio, “I was always reading the labels of different materials and when it would say ‘DO NO USE WITH SUCH AND SUCH IT IS CORROSIVE!’, I went right out and got that other material to see what would develop.”

Related blog post: Heart as Arena