Renato L. Barja Jr.

The work is in good condition overall. The canvas is clear and taut. There are indications of light wear and handling around the edges. Under ultraviolet light inspection, there is no evidence of retouching. Unframed, on stretcher. No ostensible conditional problems apparent to the sculpture.
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Toy gun in one hand and a balloon in the other, Renato L. Barja Jr.’s painting Birthday Boy quivers with an existential angst. The blue balloon is no match for the misplaced cheerfulness of the scene, as it hangs limp in space, with nothing to buoy it. Hiding behind the celebrant’s sad eyes and turned down mouth, is anxious confusion, an emotion familiar to those who have contemplated the meaning of life in an absurd world. At the boy’s feet, momentarily forgotten, are material objects promised to provide happiness. Birthdays are meant to be festive occasions, that one day where the ego can be stroked without guilt, where narcissism is expected, and selfishness excused.  However, in the present painting, Barja Jr. has turned the moment into an opportunity for introspection, with questions such as “Why I am here?” underlining the context of the piece.

The pathos that exists within Barja Jr.’s work, whether it is sculptures or paintings, is remarkable given his subject’s cartoonish quality. The artist’s images touch upon raw feelings, and pulling at the viewer’s heartstrings. His color palette is somber as a wet day, capturing the fleeting sunlight, while simultaneously depicting the self’s fading desire to live. Regardless of the blues and oranges that briefly elevate Birthday Boy from its monochrome environment, Barja Jr.’s commitment to melancholia is evident in the painting’s gray ambience. Birthday Boy is reminiscent of what writer Hunter S. Thompson’s once said: “We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and … we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely— at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone.”