Manuel León: LA HUELLA SECA

The Yusto/Giner Gallery presents the new individual exhibition of Manuel León in its space in Madrid.

Manuel León embodies the Flow, long before urbanites devoid of street cred and psychologists appropriated the word, and he will continue to do so even after rappers have long forgotten it. He encompasses all the flow of the Golden Age and that of the 21st century: he is completely immersed in rhythm and flows with it. And that elusive quality, difficult to define, is what defines his painting.

He has a baroque spirit, the "horror vacui" of many of his paintings reflects how filled his head is. He connects thousands of seemingly contradictory references because he's eclectic at heart (and in his stomach), but that allows him to mix the most intellectual with the most straightforward, the most sacred with the most profane, the acidic with the tender... In him, the "pop" isn't about the colours, but about the popular. Often his paintings illustrate or are titled with proverbs or sayings (and in Andalusian dialect) while paraphrasing a Goya's Capricho or reinterpreting a Vermeer. He painted graffiti Nazarenes, singers, party animals; and a "Goyaesque" figure hooded with a red carnation and a fan (What a stance! What an attitude!) which is the most accurate synthesis of the spirit of Seville's Spring Festivities (some years even becoming the official poster). He sacralized "La costilla de Santa Clara," with an impressive triptych that invited to pray to her - or to take off one's hat - and a concert-performance with contemporary flamenco artists Rocío Márquez and Raúl Cantizano.

Source: Gallria Yusto/Giner