He builds upon his paintings in deliberate stages through layers of inquiry both aesthetic and personal, contemplating the process and its effects on the landscape of the work in progress. He uses papyrus, foil, minerals, encaustic and a whole universe of other material to build loose geometric arrays, weave stitches, cut and etch out his unique vision onto the surface. The subjective content that informs these neo-expressionist forms are themes of personal connection, love, loss, fear, the passage of time, and whatever else the artist unearths in his personal exploration. This excavation of his memories for the raw material of his paintings frees a space for the painting to grow and communicate the structure and elaboration it needs, and brings forth works of stunning originality and complexity. This dialectic between memory and aesthetic goals leads to what Jordi refers to as multilayered "metaphor containers." They are in fact works which inspire contemplation and aesthetic dialogue.
 
Jordi also makes use of his training as a chemist and grinds his own mineral-based pigments for richer and more subtle possibilities of color. This commitment to traditional pigments is consistent with his creative process, as it is a revival and validation of a specific artistic history, as well as an assertion of individual innovation in a world increasingly characterized by the generic and mass-produced.
 
Given the personal dynamics of Jordi's work process, it seems inevitable that such paintings would straddle the line between figurative representation and lyrical abstraction. Each Jordi Fornies painting is a balance between commitment to a personal and aesthetic foundation and the inspiration to flight, between aesthetic choices and the freewheeling subjectivities stirred by memory and inspiration. This necessary tension is expressed both in the work process and its choices and on the canvases, spatially as well as in choices of color. Examine the saturation of Jordi's azurite-based blues absorbed by encaustic, his sulphuric reds suggestive of Catalan mountains, and the brooding, underwater tones of his malachite green. Jordi sculpts with color just as he paints with shapes, and the resolution of his exploration of visual possibilities is a multileveled system of evoked moods and a powerful tactility. 

These are paintings as physical and mental landscapes, which emphasizes that our emotionally laden memories cannot be divorced from sensory details. This extraordinary manifestation in Jordi's work comes about through his commitment to personal, aesthetic, historical and technical integrity, with the results being works which speak in a voice all his own, through the vocabulary of a visual language unlike any that has come before.

Stephen Bracco
Arts Writer – New York
June 2008