Antonio Montalvo .- Lo real

Espacio Mínimo gallery presents the fifth solo exhibition of ANTONIO MONTALVO which is entitled Lo real (The Real). It is a selection of paintings, oil on canvas, in small and medium format, brought together, made in the last three years. The common theme that articulates this new series of pieces is that all of them are painted from life. The artist, far from the photographic reference of his previous stage, now works from immediate presence, from a time and space shared with what is represented. In his own words “Painting from life is a way of being more present, more fully in reality (…). This is so important today, when we are incapable of being alone with anything and we escape from any direct relationship with reality.”

The papers and canvases that the artist create are indebted to traditional painting genres; portraits, still lifes and landscapes. But the theme does not respond to a predetermined search or a plan. It is an encounter with the everyday life, which starts from an always intuitive impulse, with the humble intention of “bright the small, the neglected. To work with the simple elements of life and make them meaningful; or, rather, remember us that they are important.” As Robert Walser pointed out: “you don’t need to see anything extraordinary. You already see a lot.”

In his Works, filled with an elegiac and melancholic character, we also find a hopeful feeling in which what is painted is led by the artist to the fullness of its meaning in a slow, contemplative and silent way “painting is a silent task” he tells us. And also: “Search for the greatest possible nudity, without a trace of rhetoric or intellectualism: a painting without declamation, without pretensions, as if no one was waiting for it anywhere” in order to reveal “the dying beauty of all things, the splendor of a trifle that I love. (…) Painting, like its sister poetry, is the language of our strangeness.” States the artist. “It is that other reality that has become so necessary for us to understand reality itself.”

And he concludes this decalogue of intentions by stating, “the purpose of painting is the expression of the mystery of the world. Art arises from awe, from the mysterious depths of reality. The starting point is the amazement at existence. Being a painter, or a poet, or a musician, is to be at the mercy of a mystery. Because as the Poet said, Only mystery allows us to live, only mystery“.

ANTONIO MONTALVO (Granada, 1982). He has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Granada. He has previously participated in some group exhibitions – Andalusian Plastic Arts Contest 2006, Injuve Awards for Young Creation 2007, Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid, Generación 2008, Excusa Argumental at MAC Coruña in 2015, Caja Madrid Art Awards… -, also in individual shows such as Bajo un sol de ceniza in Centro Párraga in Murcia and the Palacio de los Condes de Gabia in Granada in 2018, Antonio Montalvo in Museo Ramón Gaya in Murcia in 2021 or in international contemporary art fairs such as ARCOMadrid, ZonaMACO in Mexico, ART.Bo in Bogotá, Ch.ACO in Santiago de Chile or PARC (Perú Contemporary Art) in Lima and has work in important Spanish collections such as the Center for Contemporary Art of Málaga (CAC), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo (CAAC) Seville, Granada Provincial Council, the Rodríguez-Acosta Foundation, CajaSur Foundation, DKV Collection, Coca-Cola Foundation, Caja Madrid Collection, Entrecanales Collection, Andalusian Youth Institute, Gustavo de Maeztu Museum or the Faculty of Fine Arts of Granada.