Kike Meana & Jaime Valero

Ended

On the 23rd of September, the MEAM presents a new temporary exhibition dedicated to the work of two figurative artists, Kike Meana and Jaime Valero, in which you can see several series created by the artists throughout their careers as painters.

An exhibition with the same language, but with two different accents, will broaden the viewer's vision of the different currents in figurative art today.

This exhibition contemplates two masters of drawing with a refined technique and impressive finishes, owing to the skilfulness of their hands that is recognizable in their sketches from life, as well as the extraordinary richness of nuances that coexists with a moving atmosphere and air.

Kike Meana presents his series Automata, Urban Landscape, Portrait, Conventional Landscape, Figure, Metamorphosis, Drawing, Sketches, Slaughterhouse, and Subject & Object. These works demonstrate a rigorous interest in drawing. In the hypnotic, dehumanized and desolate world of his Automatons, portrayed with long brushstrokes and vibrant charcoal, Meana confronts us with the indoctrinated mass that this society can be and in which we all, in some way, see a reflection of ourselves. His fantastic urban landscapes, mythical in their atmosphere, light, and colour, as well as the immense panoramic views of Havana, London and Madrid overwhelm the viewer. Meanwhile, his more intimate pictorial approaches of these big cities show us their daily life and their hidden corners with an equal strength and beauty, even in the hard and intense series´ Metamorphosis and Matadero. But, as is expected, a true artist cannot leave aside figurative art and portraiture: in his works Meana makes reference to beloved classics, with the omnipresent influence of the great Velázquez, of whom he is a great admirer and connoisseur. In this series, the artist´s long and powerful brushstrokes blend the oil and connect each element to the magic of great artists.

Jaime Valero presents El agua entra en escena, La intimidad y el agua, El agua en el retrato - Los grandes formatos, Trabajos más recientes, Hacia la Ruptura, Formato menor, acuarelas y apuntes and Investigación y búsqueda. The painter Jaime intends to represent a projection of the person Jaime, rendering his work conceptually strong in substance and form, as well as being particularly rich in colour, tone, nuances and messages, turning his paintings into poetic works. Jaime possesses the mastery of the few who can magically blend such a plethora of ingredients and present an elegant, transcendent and universal work. His work is solid and compact, and offers the spectator paintings that are charged with a paralyzing magic that you savour to the last minute; they are like an exquisite gourmet dish that you don't want to finish. Valero offers us a superlative language with his dissolving brushstrokes, an extensive colour palette - aided by the theme of water as a catalyst for colour - and an inexhaustible range of pictorial resources. The artist has gone through a Darwinian evolution throughout his long artistic journey and he has always known how to adapt to the new currents of conceptual realism. His distinct portraits, without trying to be strident and pretentious, are displayed in a never before seen "oversized portrait" format. Valero mysteriously occupies a three-dimensional space thanks to his soft, melting brushstrokes that envelope the face with a light that caresses the skin and disappears without making a sound.

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