Javier Lapuente

Earth and water by Javier Lapuente

Earth and water by Javier Lapuente (Tarazona, 1959) is a selection of works from the 2022-2023 period and is the last solo exhibition we present before the summer holidays. The title is a very obvious reference to his passion for ceramics, something that is reflected in a very personal way in this exhibition.

In his current painting, a clear evolution can be seen: the cold ranges, without disappearing completely, give way to the warm ones, which the artist himself links to the joy at the end of the pandemic. This is a series of compositions in violent colours in which objects appear: everyday objects such as jars and amphorae take the place of the faces, keys and plants that previously dominated his painting. This detail is not gratuitous as it reminds us of his training as a potter. Pottery has always been present in his work, although now it is more prominent.

All the works, the canvases as well as the papers and cardboards, are somewhere between abstraction and figuration. They are abstract compositions in which the wink to figuration is always present, it is something recurrent in his work, halfway between one and the other. They are paintings in which the surface advances and recedes, allowing one colour or another to appear, creating an almost musical rhythm.

Lapuente continues to use a wide variety of techniques: oil, acrylic, dripping, glazes, pointillism, even the jet of water from a hosepipe, if necessary, all to achieve a single objective: to achieve a vibration of a poetic order that evokes a reality and invites us to enter into its contemplation. Javier only gives clues; it is the spectator who must immerse himself in his work to find his own meaning.

The exhibition Earth and water by Javier Lapuente can be visited until June 17^th.