Villa del Arte is glad to present the latest collection of the Basque artist, Jon Errazu. Although he resides in Barcelona, he revisits the mountains and landscapes of his birth place in the Basque Country through his work. The north of Spain is characterised for its cloudy and rainy weather, but also for its beautiful mountains and green natural landscapes. This area was difficult to conquer throughout history, which allowed its inhabitants to develop and maintain a unique culture, mythologies and customs. Still nowadays they differ from the rest of Spain, and have a great sense of belonging and community amongst themselves.
Jon Errazu looks back to his origins and motherland, and paints from his memories and heart. Through the use of Chinese ink and acrylic paint in his signature monochromatic palette, he explores the sense of solitude, calm and natural beauty of the mountains in the Basque land. He invites us to contemplate nature’s majesty, the opaque haunting beauty of his mountains, inky lakes, and horizons.
Errazu finds inspiration in various artistic movements. His paintings are composed with very few elements that are depicted with intensity, and textures that give them character, while provoking doubts on the spectator: "is that a mountain or a rock? Is that what I see a path or the sky?" He succeeds to combine figurative expressionism with abstract minimalism, resulting in a fusion of the most solid with the most liquid elements: great mountains and overwhelming lakes are presented as fragile flashes of a sensitive state of mind.
Like the fog that envelopes his canvases, we are enveloped in solitude and contemplation. In this exhibition, Errazu the geologist, the artist, speaks to us of ancient fable and of great unknown legend, of mystery hidden in the white charcoal of the mists, of an oriental poem full of serenity and acceptance.
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