![Carlos Flores: Untitled, 2020. Acrylic paint. 20 x 16 inches.](https://bfafinearts.sva.edu/wp-content/uploads/Carlos_Flores_Untitles_2020_5-Carlos-Flores_edit_1500px-604x800.jpg)
Carlos Flores, Untitled, 2020. Acrylic paint, 20 x 16 inches.
The central theme of Carlos Flores works is described by the untranslatable Portuguese term saudade which roughly refers to a melancholic longing or yearning, a sense of loneliness or incompleteness. His expressionist painting style expresses this type of emotional experience. Flores begins each painting with a sentence, which is guided by the external world. But then, “the former begs physicality from the latter,” which allows Flores to synthesize an emotion that he wants the work to elicit.