Art Madrid'23 – Hyperrealistic sculpture in Bilabo

 

 

 

The BBK Hall of Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is designed, right now, for generate many questions. The first: Is it reality? The second: How is that possible?... and up to 34 as the 34 works shown in the exhibition "Hyperrealistic Sculpture 1973-2016" which brings together the 26 main authors of the hyperrealist movement worldwide.

 

 

 

 

The selection of works - carried out by the curator Otto Letze with pieces from international collections through the mediation of the Institute for Cultural Exchange in Tubingen (Germany) - ranges from American pioneers as George Segal, Duane Hanson and John DeAndrea, to the international dissemination movement with the Spanish Juan Muñoz, Maurizio Cattelan, Ron Mueck, Sam Jinks and Patricia Piccinini or Canadian Evan Penny. It is also presented for the first time, the play "Lisa" by John DeAndrea. This is the first exhibition in Spain that shows the depth review of human figuration along the more than fifty years of existence of hyperrealism.

 

 

 

 

Modeling, cast, paint, resins, clays, waxes, fabrics, artificial hair, these materials allow hyperrealist artists an approach to the human body in a vivid and faithful manner but from different approaches, always trying to show something of the inner life of the figure.

 

 

 

The exhibition is segmented into different sections: "human Replicas", "Monochrome Sculptures", "Body Parts", "The game of dimensions" and "distorted Realities". With them, occurs a diversification of meanings and issues around the body from the body as mirror of the soul, to issues of identity and normality, the revision of social classes, movement and bodies in space, voyeurism, surrealism dreamlike, fragility and relativity of life.

 

 


 

In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.