Cristina Rodriguez Jump Into Reality 17-22 September 2001 Air Gallery, 32 Dover Street, London, W1 10-6pm Mon - Fri, 11-4 Saturday A TRIBUTE TO LIFE Cristina Rodriguez's artwork is a tribute to life. Highly charged with sentiments, her immense paintings are full of colour, of feeling, and, above all, faith. I only became acquainted with Cristina's work recently when she invited me to her studio. I had no hesitation in giving her my support because Cristina Rodriguez belongs to that talented generation of dedicated Colombian artists who have an urge to express themselves and an intense desire to speak through their paintings. At her studio I discovered this collection that is here on display for you. A tribute to human life, these paintings depict the various stages of life and their significance – love that leads to the birth of man and the inception of ideas, youth, creation, the laborious path to strengthening character, the consolidation of existence, the fulfilment of dreams and the certainty of death. Through her art, Cristina Rodriguez seeks to portray the human being – the Colombian human being and, at the same time, the universal human being, who shares one single way of communication, one single origin, one single sentiment, one single condition that unites and draws all human beings together. Cristina Rodriguez's work stirs up nostalgic feelings and delves into deep personal and collective experiences. Her paintings are a stream of sensations that, according to our Colombian Nobel prizewinner Garcia Marquez "squeeze out sentiments". I think Cristina is attempting to portray the sacred presence of human beings and our need for others. Therefore, when she told me that she had put a lot of herself into each stroke, on looking at her paintings I discovered that there was also a lot of Colombia in each brushstroke and, in particular, of Colombia's need for others. Victor G. Ricardo Colombian Ambassador in the UK