Review: Mateo Balaban (Rain Bordo) – Untitled Abstract Composition
Rain Bordo has clearly taken the phrase “paint the town red” quite literally—and then decided red wasn’t nearly chaotic enough, so he threw in the entire rainbow for good measure.
This piece is what happens when a color wheel has an existential crisis and decides to document it through aggressive horizontal brushstrokes. The dominant crimson tide fights valiantly against insurgent blues, yellows, and greens, creating a visual cacophony that’s part controlled chaos, part beautiful accident. It’s as if the artist squeegeed his way through every emotion known to humankind, then went back for seconds.
The technique here—those distinctive horizontal scrapes and layered marks—gives the work a frenetic energy that refuses to let your eye rest. It’s restless, urgent, slightly manic, and unapologetically messy in the best possible way. This isn’t art that whispers; it’s art that shows up at your door at 3 AM with wild ideas and no regard for your sleep schedule.
What saves this from being merely decorative mayhem is the underlying structure. Beneath all that chromatic violence, there’s a method to the madness—a rhythm in the repetition, a deliberation in the disorder. Bordo walks that tightrope between “my toddler did this” and “this required genuine artistic vision,” and miraculously doesn’t fall off.
Perfect for anyone whose interior design philosophy is “sophisticated, but make it slightly unhinged.”
Rating: 4/5 (Would be 5/5 if it came with a Tylenol)
Rain Bordo 