Stoa Gallery | STOA Gallery in VOLTA BASEL 2023 with a project of three Spanish artist: Salustiano, Xevi vilaro and Conchi Alvarez.

29 May VOLTA BASEL 2023

Posted at 16:37h in Art Fairs, Uncategorized by Stoa

VOLTA BASEL 20213

12-18th of June

BOOTH B6
ARTISTS

A tale of an unconventional Don Juan

The theme of our exhibition project is the universal tale of Don Juan. We propose a quasi-theatrical montage with paintings by three Spanish figurative artists: Salustiano, Conchi Alvarez and Xevi Vilaro, all belonging to the portrait genre.

On the back wall of the stand is our Don Juan made in oil on methacrylate by Xevi Vilaró, portraing the iconographic motive of the seducer who comes across as an elegantly dressed dandy, but hides a voracious lust, playing with the everlasting contradiction in which the narcissist lives, and maybe even a questionable virility.

And there is no Don Juan without lovers. Without them, there is no myth. A story in which the coveted woman is in a conventual retreat, impregnable, which only serves to feed the ever-growing lust for the hunt.

Salustiano´s lady represents the woman as an object of love, chaste and sublimated, desired and unreachable. Being so unattainable is why she is so desirably sought after. The composition and format enhance the illusion of an exalted, almost chimerical, character. A Neoplatonic Venus which one can enjoy without the need to possess her.

On the other hand, Conchi Alvarez´s oil on canvas depicts an ordinary woman who beyond the apparent happiness and the purity of a flower, conveys passion. She is the one to blame for the suitor´s existential failure, as she is the one who seduces and captivates. And this is because she is well aware that life is just a play where Don Juan is always on stage, under the spotlight, playing a role, and hiding behind a pretext which is only a myth, in an attempt to escape from a present “flooded” with desire, so characteristic of a consuming society. She looks on in her magnificent traditional dress, from her vantage point….and her smile is far from being coy, fully aware that she is the one who is in control.

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