Opening of “Where I Live” by Menchu Urozción
As you already know, at Sala Rusiñol we love to celebrate anniversaries, and this May we’ve reached the number 39. To honor our 39th Anniversary, we have presented the work of Menchu Uroz, a Catalan artist who has been living in Madrid for many years and who, for the first time, is exhibiting her work individually at Sala Rusiñol.
Attendees had the pleasure of spending some time with her during the opening and getting to know her a little better. We were also joined by her childhood friend, Maria Sabi, who read aloud a text written by fellow artist Isabel Gutiérrez for this exhibition: “Where I Live.”
The text is this:
“I first came across Menchu Uroz’s work in an exhibition she presented in Madrid in 2021. Those images, set in museums, full of magic and good work, entered my retina and stayed in my affective memory from the first glance.
In the following years I have followed his career closely, coinciding in different Art Fairs, attending his exhibitions and having interesting conversations about our creative processes. I have followed step by step each of his masterly series, and I have enjoyed the countless visual delights that he gives us in each new work. Therefore, it is a pleasure to be with you today through my words, which will try to take you into the universe of her paintings.
The series Menchu presents in this exhibition is the continuity of her latest themes: landscapes that recreate moments and experiences in different cities or imaginary spaces. In them she admirably combines elements and constructions of reality with reveries arising from nature and objects.
In order to achieve these particular atmospheres, Menchu resolves her spaces with unsaturated colour ranges, enlivened by soft blues, violets, greens, ochres and whites. Small surfaces of more vivid colour enhance the lightness of the surrounding space. Respectful of the classical canons of perspective, she plays at the same time with freer spatial assemblages, in the manner of a visual collage, which invite us to imagine dreamlike, disembodied landscapes. She uses a technique that is not very material, based on veiled oil tones, which contribute to the visual sensation of transparency and dreaminess.
The combination between the backgrounds of her paintings, which play with abstraction, and the characters, figurative in appearance, strategically placed to focus the viewer’s gaze, is noteworthy.
With a play between planning and improvisation, Menchu creates masterly visual lines that accompany the eye imperceptibly over the entire surface of the painting.
The characters Menchu portrays live and let live, they observe, reflect, read, play, relax and wonder, always respecting the presence and freedom of movement of those close to them and strangers. They are travellers, sportsmen, tourists, families, the occasional absent-minded person, all trying in their own way to enjoy the landscapes they inhabit.
In some of her compositions we can see figures gently touching spheres of light suspended in space, which seem to acquire corporeity precisely because of this contact. I believe that Menchu wants to symbolise through these bodies of light, through these spheres, that we should take care and keep as a treasure the purest and most valuable experiences and feelings of our life in our particular ‘heart-sphere’. Menchu leaves in suspension many other spheres in search of her human, so I presume that she encourages us to enter her paintings in order to reach each one of us our own sphere, and to keep in it the best of ourselves.
In other works she shares with us different views of architectural ensembles of exquisite elegance, which she herself has previously discovered and enjoyed, such as Casa Batlló, the chimneys of the La Pedrera building, the Monastery of San Cugat, the recreations of the winged lions of the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona, or the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid, always underpinned by the gaze of her characteristic characters.
Everything in our artist’s work alludes to respect for the conservation of the space we inhabit, to introspection and empathy between human beings.
Let us, then, enter Menchu’s inhabited spaces, as Alice did with the mirror, and place ourselves silently beside her dreamy characters, letting time pass to try, like them, to find the secret of our own identity”.
We were also joined by the Councillor for Culture of the Sant Cugat City Council, Ms. Núria Escamilla, who highlighted the gallery’s efforts to keep this 39-year-old project more active than ever.
For her part, the artist thanked the Councillor for her kind words and also expressed gratitude to the Sala Rusiñol team and to all those in attendance.
Here is the full presentation:
Also featured in the news by TV Sant Cugat:
It was an afternoon full of emotions and meaningful encounters. We’d also like to remind you that during our openings, an original artwork is raffled among the attendees. Here is an image of the lucky winner that day:
