“No one becomes enlightened by fantasizing about figures of light, but by becoming aware of their darkness.” Based on this quote from Carl Jung, Venezuelan visual artist Enay Ferrer takes on the challenge of embarking on the adventure of finding himself as a sine qua non part of his work.

Ferrer studies the soul based on its “disposition to live like an animal that moves in the realm of emotion.” He feels a deep obsession with animals, beasts, and the wildness that conditions the behavior of individuals in society.

For him, art cannot be separated from humanity: “Painting does not lie.” His portraits and self-portraits allow him to construct a means of self-exploration that always reveals psychological aspects of the individual and those that confront him with society.

Masks probe the visible parts of your being (because one is more what one hides than what one shows) and coexist silently with the spectacle of those images in which they intervene. They are the representation of oneself in constant coexistence with the other.

In his artistic discourse, memory is explored through the Catholic icons with which he grew up: the venerable Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, Saint Michael the Archangel, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus transcend their religious significance without abandoning it, helping Ferrer to reevaluate his memories of his home in Maturín (in northeastern Venezuela), his family, and his childhood. It is from this memory that Ferrer connects his faith in moments when aspects of reason are exhausted.

Ferrer talks about his fears as “demons” with whom he interacts: “When I paint,” he says, it’s “like sitting surrounded by demons making deals.” Nothing is random in his creative process; everything is planned with the depth necessary to see himself reflected in what he does. In the end, when he finishes a work, “there is always a moment of silence.”