Peruvian painter Nestor Madalengoitia calls his work “Patternist” — the subtext or the overlay, depending on your perspective, for his paintings and pastels. After easily getting lost in the maze-like graphics, taking in the full piece is particularly striking. Madalengoitia masterfully captures people in situations open to broad interpretation, vignettes of life on the street, at a party, in the park. Particularly striking are his pastel portraits, highly detailed designs that mesmerize with entire faces appearing to shift as the viewer passes from left to right. Madalangoitia claims iconography and ancient cultural patterns as strong influences. The ideas emerge in his work as a visual and conceptual vocabulary, and he focuses on the intersection between artistic impact and the meaning behind a subject. His murals are installed in public spaces, including in Washington DC; in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada, in the Florida Keys, in his current hometown of Poughkeepsie and in his birthplace, Peru.