Mediterranean ambience calls out in Perez-cabrero’s show at Leila Heller
DUBAI: On view from May 30 and running till September, Leila Heller Gallery is hosting Spanish multidisciplinary artist Eduardo Perez-cabrero’s solo show, Silent Day. Perez-cabrero explores life from his epidermis and captures vibrations and transmits them to his pieces directly. His work tries to be free and unconstrained by convention. The show presents eight pieces, from which the installation titled I will take you up to the stars, occupies the main wall with more than 400 pieces of blue ceramics. There are three other pieces in brushed aluminum. The other three-dimensional resin artworks express the language of shape and colour, leaving impressions both rational and dreamlike.
The artist’s work is characterised by the influence of the Mediterranean Sea and its culture; his production consists primarily of sculptures with organic references. He works with rounded and sinuous shapes in large formats, created in aluminum, brass, resins, cement and ceramics.
An exaltation of joie de vivre, the compositions are optimistic, clear and direct. Sincere, simple and pure could be other adjectives that could be used to describe the artwork. Their messages parallel the artist’s way of understanding life - in some cases, appearing as intriguing, mysterious and even enigmatic — a side that invites us to see the works in a more introspective dimension.
Abandoning traditional methods of sculpture, Perez-cabrero favours a more contemporary, impulsive form of expression. He distills the essence of visual impact, processes it and generates compositions with simple, playful designs, using ingenious production processes.
The conceptual content of many of his works explores genetics, rather than the environment in which we evolve, as a fundamental driver of a human being’s journey.
The sinuous and organic shapes of the pieces draw a parallel with the cells that convey the values of humanity.
Pérez-cabrero works between Barcelona (Spain), Miami (USA) and Ras Al Khaimah (UAE). Born in Barcelona in 1961, his talent presents itself as a continuation of the artistic and plastic creativity of a family saga.
His maternal great-grandfather’s uncle, industrialist Josep Batlló, entrusted his friend Antoni Gaudí with the construction of his family home, the renowned Casa Batlló on Paseo de Gracia. It is a representative of Barcelona’s modernism at the beginning of the 19th century. Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was a Catalan architect known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernism. Gaudi’s works have a highly individualised, sui generis style. Most are located in Barcelona. He was influenced by neo-gothic art and Oriental techniques and integrated into his architecture such crafts as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging and carpentry.
Casa Batlló is a reflection of Gaudí’s artistic fullness: it belongs to his naturalistic stage (first decade of the 20th century), a period in which the architect perfected his personal style, drawing inspiration from the organic forms of nature. To this, the Catalan artist adds great creative freedom and an imaginative ornamental creation: starting from a certain baroque style - his works acquire great structural richness, of shapes and volumes devoid of rationalist rigidity. Perez-cabrero’s paternal great-grandfather, Maestro Pérez-cabrero, was a composer and conductor at the Liceo Opera House, Barcelona’s crown jewel for music and opera, both then and now. The Mediterranean art in which the artist is immersed is characterised by the fusion of sensuality with impressionism. In such an environment, impressions are incomparably more energetic. The sea is bluer, the wheat more golden, the sand more material and the sky brighter.
The artist enjoys the pleasure of his vision, from which he sources soul, hope and impressions, which are then transmitted to vibrant and lucid pieces. The sculptures are adorned with Mediterranean colours par excellence: the white of Cadaqués; the yellow of sunflowers; the green of the pine trees on the Costa Brava; the blue of the sea in Formentera; the golden hue of the fields of Empordà. He is interested in fleeting impressions, the appearance of things, surfaces and the content of what he observes around him. He has exhibited his work in art galleries all around the world and at exhibitions such as Art Madrid, Art Laren (The Netherlands), Castell de Benedormiens (Barcelona, Spain) and recently, at Dubai Art Festival.
His work can be found in private collections in Spain, Andorra, France, Italy, Germany, United States, Mexico and Russia. His artwork also appears in Barcelona’s Hotel Majestic and at Hotel Four Seasons in Madrid, with twelve pieces of art on display, two of them in the main lobby. Since its establishment over three decades ago in New York, Leila Heller Gallery has gained recognition as a pioneer in promoting creative dialogue and exchange between Western artists and Middle Eastern, Central and Southeast Asian artists. It has also won a reputation for identifying and cultivating the careers of talented and emerging artists, and for having an enviable impact on contemporary art and culture.
Currently representing a diverse roster of Western and Middle Eastern artists, it is also active in the American, European and Middle Eastern secondary art markets.
In 2015, Leila Heller Gallery opened its first international location in Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue. At 14,000 square feet, the state of the art area features three exhibition spaces, making it the largest gallery in the UAE. Showcasing leading regional and international artists, many of whom present their work in the Middle East for the first time, Leila Heller Gallery is mainly dedicated to supporting the evolving practice of established artists. Features Writer