VERTICES OF THE PASSION

Curated by Conchi Alvarez

Holy Week has been one of the most important celebrations in the calendar of feasts in Spain, and has an important significance in the Art world. Throughout the centuries the Church led to the iconographic representation of all the characters involved in this Catholic holiday, using the best sculptors and painters to illustrate and bring the faithful closer to the biblical narrative. But aware of the theological significance of the passion and death of Christ, they orchestrated a unique performance in which the images leave the churches in procession, flanked by devotees and brotherhoods to go to and touch the faithful, to amaze the viewer.

This exhibition presents a different view, of the many possible, from the conflicting visions of three artists. There are not many artists nowadays who are inspired and work on this issue, but the chosen artists stand out for offering works of arts loaded with strength, originality and narrative.

It is the first time the artist from Zurich, Franco Scalese, a multidisciplinary artist, with deep Italian roots, exhibits his work of art in Spain. He is part of this show with a total of eight works, sculptures-installations of small size, seven are sculptures and one is a relief printing, and from these, seven are Crucified Christs. Seven, a symbolic number, as the seven words spoken by Christ before he died and that in Spain are commemorated on Good Friday of the Passion Week. The other one, a Bible in German immersed in the same means as the Christs, a resin that transmits all of his message.

Joaquin Molina, artist from Seville, one of the gallery´s collaborator for years, also focuses on the figure of Christ. His sculpture that stands out is the sculpture of a Nazarene, terracotta, belonging to the more classical and expressionist imagery of Seville. And as usual in his work, it is a philosophy of life that he shares, Crucified in a bodybuilder theme in two very different techniques: a drawing of a crucified in jeans, and four digital works with the focus on a Cosmic Christ.

Faced with these two artists, who focused on the undisputed star of this event, the figure of Christ, the work of the third artist, Conchi Alvarez, focuses her attention to the brotherhoods, in this occasion the children, who become the real stars of this performance. It is the theme of “traditio”, the passing on of this ancient custom to new generations in a masterly manner. A total of 26 works, three oil paintings on canvas and the others in acrylics, fourteen on panel of various sizes and nine small sketches on paper.