José Yaque, Maturation

«For me, the act of painting is corporal, like a performance, I like to think that paint is made by the body and not only by the hand»

José Yaque caresses the mass of pigment in order to mix and spread the colours after placing a plastic membrane on the canvas, creating multicolour veins that bring to mind malachite, lapislazuli and opal. Force of gravity and vibrations generate a magma which is again transformed when the artist wraps and envelops the works with a plastic cover. Once the drying process is over, Yaque removes the protective layer creating an eroded painting; the plastic exerts on the canvas the same effect that wind and water exert on the earth’s surface. The result is a work marked by the force of nature, impossible for a man to reproduce with a brush. According to Yaque’s concept, painting is in its essence colour, and its perception depends on the pigments originated by the minerals resting underground: for the titles of the works exhibited in the show, the artist was inspired by the different types of minerals.

In front of one of his works, the viewer is captured by the movement and energy enacted, the eye scans the canvas losing itself in its depth and rhythm, in the folds of the surface troubled by complex overlays of colour where everything becomes an immersive and wrap-around dance.

Manifesting its wish to consolidate the connection between Italy and Cuba, now more than ever, considering the current pandemic that we are still experiencing, and to thank the precious help brought by Cuban doctors, Galleria Continua has decided to extend José Yaque’s exhibition at Galleria Continua at St. Regis Rome until Sunday 28 June.

In accordance with the DPCM Covid 19 sanitary regulations, Galleria Continua Roma will reopen its doors from Tuesday 19 May also by appointment, to visit the show, and rediscover the Cuban artist’s vibrant works.

Tours lasting for one hour will also be organized every Friday, by appointment, in order to visit the exhibition spaces including the installations in the hall of St. Regis “Teenager Teenager” (2011), “I didn’t notice what I am doing” (2012) e “If I Died” (2013) by Chinese artist duo Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, protagonist of the last Venice Biennale.