BLOOMING EMOTIONS

Oct. 3, 2017 – Nov. 22, 2017

Curated by Susan Nelly

The gallery curator walks from left to right through a room full of large, square floral paintings.

Three floral paintings are hung in the southwest corner of the gallery, right by the glass entrance. A small round table with a white table cloth is in front of them.

Three floral paintings are hung in the southeast corner of the gallery, right by the glass entrance. A small wooden portfolio viewer sits in front of them, presenting a couple of works on paper.

The west wall of the gallery, presenting three floral paintings. The two larger rectangular pieces flank a smaller square piece that has a decorative table underneath it.

“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke

Summary

"Blooming Emotions" features two bodies of work by Spanish artist Beatriz Elorza. The abstract paintings are infused with the atmosphere and spirit of the two cities, New York and London, where the artist has lived and worked, and reflect, in vivid color and motion, her experience of their energies.

Nature has many secrets that she unfurls only at the perfect time. People have secrets too, emotions of power and beauty locked deep inside our hearts. Beatriz Elorza employs the painterly gesture, in harmony with the vivid colors of Nature, to reveal her inner life and create an immersive, resonant experience in viewing her paintings.

Elorza’s larger than life works present a wonderful conundrum, walking a tightrope between abstract and representational art, with the latter serving as a point of entry, inviting us to a deeper exploration of the emotional content. These compositions reference naturalist illustration in their focus on the subject and lack of fear of negative space, but the artist’s mark is pure New York School. Her works especially bring to mind the brightness and stripped-down clarity of the late paintings of Willem de Kooning. It is a wholly new synthesis of aesthetics that evokes an atmosphere of the wonder, infused with a sense of “Déjà vu .”

Beatriz Elorza composes her deepest feelings on canvas in a vocabulary consisting of the dynamics and colors of Nature at the height of her beauty. “Blooming Emotions” indeed… we don’t just see the light, color and motion -- we feel them.

Following major solo shows in New York and London, “Blooming Emotions” is Elorza’s first exhibition at Rafael Gallery.