Once, in the 1950s, the Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev, while on a tour of the Western United States, stood in front of the Grand Canyon, arms akimbo in his characteristic Russian-Comrade-Imperial way. "What does it make you think of?" an aide inquired of the Cold Warrior. "Sex," said Kruschev. "Sex?" asked the aide. "Yes," said the Premier, "everything reminds me of sex."

So, procreating animals that we are, we tend to conjure up the erotic in almost everything we see. The erotic equals the sensual, equals the mortal, equals the mutable, equals the world. The erotic permeates our vision of life and an eroticized world is reflected in how we think. Roberto Juarez’s current paintings enter our eroticized world, become part of it, critique that world and how we see it.

To be sure, the same can be said of most, if not all, great painters. But to gaze on these paintings elicits moods and modes, colors and shapes that elude easy definition.