Art Madrid'23 – Ouka Leele´s anthology

 

 

The Niemeyer Center in Aviles hosts until November 29 the anthology "INÉDITA" ("Unpublished") of the artist Ouka Leele. A sample of unpublished works and various lesser-known readings about the poetic and visual imagery of Barbara Allende Gil de Biedma.

 

 

 

 

The poet and writer is perhaps the least known face of Ouka Leele but certainly it is the one who feeds the landscapes, characters and scenarios portraying by photographer Ouka Lele, the best known of the Oukas. It is precisely this visual poetry, these personal poems, which the Commissioner Rafael Gordon has sought between files and lesser-known works of the artist and what he has hanged in the walls of the Niemeyer Center as an "inner journey, deep and full " through the carreer and the person of Ouka Lele.

 


"INÉDITA" is a retrospective exhibition of eclectic and diverse works of very different moments of her career, allowing the public to see the evolution and consolidation of her language. From her first snapshots with just 17 years, self-portraits (identity searches outside the narcissism), the appearance of its symbols, totems and fetishes, until mature works and new creative pursuits, as "a human comedy in 67 pictures" , explained Gordon. Literature, mythology, dreams, friendship and family are invariant visual ingredients for her potions and the binder material of this sample.

 

 

 

 

The artist herself was surprised with the selection of the commissioner: "Interestingly, there is no picture painted with watercolors, the more known part of my work. The commissioner Rafael Gordon was choosing my photo files that have never been seen, even I never thought to teach, " she explained.

 

It is the unprecedented opportunity to contact more broadly than ever, with a language, a poetic sensibility and speech borned of contact with the experience of life. "INÉDITA" was accompanied by the screening of the documentary "The look of Ouka Lele", nominated for the Goya in 2010, which speaks about the creative genius, passion and thought in the service of painting and photography as tools of the spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

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.