Press release
769KB
march 15, 2023 - Galleria d'Arte Contini
Julio Larraz | the Allegory of Dreams | June 3rd - November 30th , 2023
Contini Art Gallery hosts the solo exhibition of master painter #juliolarraz which will open – event attended by the artist - on Saturday June 3rd, 2023 in the gallery’s Venetian venue of Calle Larga XXII Marzo.
Following the success of the exhibition at the Vittoriano in Rome, Viaggio Nella Fantasia and the most recent exhibition in 2018 hosted by Contini Art Gallery, #juliolarraz is welcomed back to Italy with a major solo exhibition, hosting a series of artworks inspired by surrealism and metaphysics.
This comprehensive retrospective is set to celebrate his career through an accurate selection of oils on canvas, drawings, and watercolours from the ‘80s to the present day, retracing the artist’s exuberant and ironic production. His paintings depict him as a genius and polyhedric virtuoso who is capable to portray many different themes through his signature dreamlike rendition, which always manages to stay true to the current topics.
His works are alluring masterpieces, visually and emotionally tempting. Wide strokes of vibrant colors and the typical bright and warm beam of the Caribbean are what make his pieces recognizable at a glance. Larraz’s curious and unique point of view inspires a feeling of awe in the audience. He is able to forge a peculiar gaze on parodies, caricatures, landscapes, feminine figures, as well as still lives, and political issues.
Among the former, power has always been the central theme of the maestro’s artistic production. Denoted by a colorful irony, Larraz’s work is a powerful reference to his earlier days as a caricature artist who collaborated with many renowned magazines. The maestro critiques the vilest and violent aspects of the obsession with power with an ironic and grotesque take on the matter, only seemingly innocent. Striking is Larraz’s inborn ability to portray a subject in his unique way, focusing attention on a detail that is only apparently random, yet decisively emblematic.
Landscapes and room views are among the artist’s favorite themes: in these scenarios, the subject often does not occupy a decisive position in the composition, sparking a feeling of confusion among the audience. The protagonists of his artworks, only seemingly appearing as elusive phantasma, are real beings tormented by contradictions and wandering thoughts.
Larraz’s aesthetic reminds us of Magritte’s enigmatic surrealism. It becomes evident in The End of a Very Long Day. Here, reason and logic fold in on themselves to make room for the aesthetic feeling of knowledge to creep into the mind and ignite a vision.
The domain of the sea is the cycle that truly showcases the artist's boundless representational freedom. Here he describes a pictorial archipelago founded on a thousand islands born out of tales of departures and returns. Thus, the audience can experience an adventure into the depths of the abyss, open to the unknown and to the mystery of the eternal. These feelings are perfectly conveyed by Au Revoir. Here, the artist creates a surreal world, suspended amid silent and riveted atmospheres.
Larraz's intentionally suggestive allegorical and metaphysical universe does not provide answers, but rather, invites us to probe. A perfect example is Mr. Jonah Hamilton in the Bay of Mirrors. The viewer has a privileged point of view, in order to narrate what seems to be about to happen. Larraz is the director of his artwork, favoring compositions of precarious balance, upside-down points of view, and unexpected angles. In doing so, the audience is called to not only observe but also actively engage with the art piece, thus coming into direct contact with the artist and his work.
The exhibition depicts a universe of themes and subjects which convey the artist's vision, nurtured by a deep desire to investigate cultural, social and political issues, which in turn produce very precise and time-defined visual and conceptual cycles.
Julio Larraz, Au Revoir, 2016, oil on canvas, cm 152 x 183
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Julio Larraz, Exceptional Views of Sea of Rains, 2014, Watercolor & Pastel on Paper, cm 47 x 61
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Julio Larraz, On the Reef, 2012, oil on canvas, cm 152 x 183
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Julio Larraz, The Fourth Amendment, 2014, oil on canvas, cm 175 x 269
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