On November 3rd, Valencia based gallery PlasticMurs, opened an interesting group show entitled LUGARES COMUNES, showing works by five young Spanish artists like AARON DUVAL, IÑIGO SESMA, JOSE LUIS CEÑA, MIKEL DEL RIO and SEBAS VELASCO.

LUGARES COMUNES showcases a selections of paintings representing what we could call, a new wave within Urban Realism, a style that could remind us of traditional American Realism in the early 20th century with a focus on everyday activities of ordinary people. In this way, the group show intends to celebrate different aspects of everyday life with classic painting as a medium.
The work is diverse, but homogeneous, being easy to be caught by their magic and closeness to things we can relate to. This is the case of the work of Aaron Duval and Sebas Velasco, whose work is characterised by evocative scenes where subjects appear as in twilight, a veil of light, or in the absence of direct light. Much of the same can be said of Mikel del Rio who, like Velasco and Duval, uses photography as a reference exploring the possibilities it provides to study each compositional element and deepen in its details.

Iñigo Sesma‘s paintings who focuses on his social and historical context, and makes use of analog and digital photographs, movies, cinema and its frames, television, Internet to give shape to work. Lastly we have the work of Jose Luis Ceña focusing on beautiful portraits that intend to illustrate the joy of life or the strangeness of dreams and the absurd making use of a delicate and bright chromatic palette like no others.

If you enjoy modern classical painting, specially when put in a modern context, Lugares Comunes is the place. The show runs through December 7 at the gallery located on calle Denia 45, Valencia, Spain. If you are around, don’t miss it!

Author: Fran

Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.