CAMILO PARDO

Born in New York City, Camilo Pardo was shaped early on by the bright colors of both the pop art movement and competition colors spawned with the birth of the muscle car. He spent his formidable years here in Detroit at the Center For Creative Studies (CCS) as he honed his craft and along with countless classmates spent countless hours dreaming of designing his ideal muscle car, something he was able to do in 2002 with the Ford GT.

The art that Camilo Pardo created over the years is all over Detroit. Indeed, a considerable amount of it is present on our freeways at any given moment of the day. Camilo put verve in the steel curves and reminded us that a car's first internal combustion takes place in an artist's mind. It's external beauty is born there as well. That mind has not ceased from creative labors, even if they're no longer entirely devoted to Motor City mojo.

Camilo's paintings and drawings bespeak both his love for linear perfection and his fascination for the manner in which those "lines" deliver aesthetic satisfaction to the viewer. His works genuinely seem to move - and they are energized by what is obviously a rich understanding and respect for popular culture and traditional disciplines. In less talented hands, such a seeming contradiction of forces would negate the best efforts. Camilo makes them reconcile, complement each other, and dance together.