Angelic and Earthly in the Paintings of Surrealist Artist Juan Medina (19 photos)

Is it easy to paint portraits of angels? Probably not, since no one has seen these creatures and everyone imagines them differently. But this doesn't faze the Mexican surrealist artist Juan Medina. Angels are the protagonists of his remarkable paintings. They resemble ordinary girls and even seem overly sexualized. But remember, everyone sees them as they please, so we must accept Medina's point of view. It seems few would object – the artist is so good at capturing the female body.





Juan Medina was born in 1950 in Mexico City, Mexico. His family was very religious, which is not uncommon in Latin America. Juan attended church regularly, and when he began painting, his first works were biblical.



While still in elementary school, Medina learned to paint with watercolors, and by high school he was confidently handling oils. While the artist's early work was dominated by scenes of everyday life and landscapes, by the age of 30, he had turned to surrealism. Very realistic women with wings, often nude, appeared in Juan Medina's canvases.



A significant feature of Juan Medina's work is his attraction to the Renaissance. His paintings closely intertwine modernity and the Middle Ages, and some works are difficult to distinguish from works from the 16th and 17th centuries.



Medina's subjects are imbued with symbolism. He himself describes it this way:

"Winged figures symbolize the desire for freedom. Nudity signifies the shedding of cultural or moral constraints, apples—passion or knowledge... Images of flesh and blood emerging from drawings, living figures undergoing metamorphosis from sculptures, crumbling brick or plaster structures, or mirror reflections—this is the iconography of spiritual transformation and self-realization. I strive to express the invisible through the visible."

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