Estampa 2023

In the curated section by Lorena del Corral of Estampa art fair (Madrid), RocioSantaCruz is pleased to present the work of Lluís Hortalà (Olot, 1959), an artist whose artistic methodology is characterized by the updating of oil painting as a contemporary language. Based on the trompe o l’oeil, Hortalà conceptualizes different aspects of the art world’s status quo through the museum as a legitimating institution, at stand 4B23.

In the painting “No se ve nada (Daniel Arasse)” (2022), Hortalà makes a direct reference to an important figure in art history such as Daniel Arasse. In this case, he links his image, associated with classical painting, to the spaces of the Prado Museum. But although Hortalà’s technique transcends the plane of the imaginary to situate itself in that of reality, nothing is what it seems: the architecture of the art gallery is empty, without paintings or visitors. Nothing is visible, as in Daniel Arasse’s most important writing, from which Hortalà takes the title of his oil on canvas. It is a trompe l’oeil, but at the same time a paradox: a painting that embodies the absence of painting, creating a dreamlike scenario.

On the other hand, in the works “On n’i voit rien” (2022-2023) and “Guillotina (Prado)” (2018), the artist continues the line of research presented in our Estampa stand. In the “Museo contra Museo” series, the artifice moves from the two-dimensional plane to the three-dimensionality of pictorial sculpture. In both works, Hortalà chooses the school of diferents museums to modify the architectural elements of the space and its institutional forms. However, he changes the syntax of the structural elements by translating them into the art of painting. The work anticipates the conclusion to which Hortalà invites us: the contradictions and differences between the decimononic Museum and the contemporary one allow us to become aware of the understanding of the past through the guarded memory. Nevertheless, the collapse will come: the tension is inevitable. These works are in direct dialogue with the work “Rien n’aura eu lieu que le lieu I” (2020-21): the deconstruction of the Roman museum with this painting, which is a polyptych divided into two wooden taulons. Each one represents the walls of a different museum (the Louvre, the Prado, the National Gallery), allowing us to perceive the exhibition setting as a hollow space.

In the VIP area of the Estampa fair, Andrés Torres Rivas, with the help of the RocioSantaCruz gallery, is presenting his latest project: a selection of his most recent portraits, in which he uses coloured pencils to draw the characters that make up his everyday life. Torres Rivas then photographs the drawings, questioning the technical reproducibility of the work in contemporary art.

Lluís Hortalà
Olot, Spain, 1959

Between 2014 and 2015, Lluís Hortalà studied at the prestigious Van der Kelen Logelain School (Belgium), where he learned the 19th-century techniques developed by Alfred Van der Kelen for decorative painting. There he prepared himself to imitate the texture of marble, which he now develops with great precision. His works are included in prestigious collections such as the Fundació Vila Casas (Barcelona), the Patrimonio Nacional (Madrid), the MNCARS (Madrid), the MACBA Collection (Barcelona, Spain) or the Banco Sabadell Art Collection (Barcelona). He has also exhibited in museums such as the Museo Nacional del Prado or the Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, among others.

Andrés Torres Rivas
Madrid, 1991

Andrés Torres Rivas is graduated in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Hochschule in Lucerne. Artist and illustrator, his artistic methodology follows traditional techniques such as watercolour, oil, engraving and graphite. The traditional experimentation of his work results in everyday scenes, set in a wide universe of his own, full of peculiar characters. Among his outstanding exhibitions are group shows in galleries in Madrid (Mad is Mad). In 2023 he presented in ArtsLibris Madrid and ArtsLibris Barcelona his fanzine 2B (2019), in which Torres gives free rein to his creativity and portrays the characteristic characters of all his work.

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