Pepita Lumier. Stew, 7
Of the love-hate relationship that Javier Marshal claims to have with Valencia, he has only shown love in this second exhibition starring Pepita Lumier. A beautiful yellow light dresses Valencian churches with blue vitrified tiles in the dome, shacks around the Albufera and bourgeois houses of the years 30, ideal but not idealized. No Instagram perfection here because butane bubbles sneak into the frames on the balconies, white plastic chairs on the porches and the scrubber next to the dirty dishes in the sink. Like life itself. Not plasticized at all but pleasant and pulsating. The light of Valencia bathes – and even burns – optimistic architectures that look outwards, the millenary trees of the Parterre (where El Corte Inglés now stands, Mariscal was born) and its gas station, a farmhouse in Morella, the Palmar highway, sunny beaches or the landscape of contrasts of La Punta. There are natural works, but many are born from Google Earth. It's the first round, admits Marshal, who copied photos directly and then distorted and chromatically retouched them. Other times he drew the line naturally – the spirit of the comic permeates all the compositions – and then added the color captured by the photograph. You'll find digital printing with German pigments that last 200 on high quality paper or Dibond (methacrylate and aluminum panels) and original watercolor and wax sketches that reflect on the Valencian landscape, always bearing in mind that "Valencia's most powerful identity is light". Frames that reconcile you with the city filtered by a wonderful light. S.M.
