Art U Ready has brought two exhibitions to ARCO week with the Mediterranean as a common thread

Art U Ready has presented two exhibition projects during ARCO week, ‘Antidote’, by the artist Jesús de Miguel, open to the public in the space of El Invernadero (San Lorenzo, 11), and the one entitled ‘Circular Portraits’, by the artistic duo ELIURPI, held with limited seating capacity and a private visit with prior registration, in an author’s house belonging to the real estate portfolio of The Sibarist, in the district of Salamanca.

In its eighth edition, the artistic project Art U Ready, promoted by The Sibarist Intentional Living as part of its commitment to the constant fusion of architecture, art, design, technology, training and awareness, celebrates its seventh anniversary coinciding with the art week in Madrid that revolves around the International Contemporary Art Fair ARCO.

As a platform to make visible artists with a transversal and peripheral view, Art U Ready, on this occasion, has opted for two artistic proposals that represent, in the words of Silvia Hengstenberg, founding partner of The Sibarist, “the result of a journey that begins when you connect with the artist and his work and vice versa. From there, a connection, a commitment, an illusion, a vision is built up slowly or quickly.

The exhibition ‘Antidote’, by the artist Jesús de Miguel, opened at El Invernadero and constituted an ode to joy and irony and his brushstrokes bring a playful touch full of positivity where the simplicity and apparent simplicity of the strokes reach a high degree of beauty. Along with small-format works on wood and canvas, the presence of a reticular composition of fishing buoys was particularly noteworthy.

These fishing gear recovered from abandonment in the fields near the cliff where Jesús de Miguel lives are painted using the same mixed technique as the paintings. The Palencia-born artist, who lives in Ibiza, uses a variety of materials and textures, such as rough cement, to represent semi-human figures and expressive resources which, on occasions, allude to totems of vernacular inspiration, under his unique artistic interpretation.

The search for the essential in the innermost part of the human being in the face of the speed of the superfluous is one of the focuses of attention that this exhibition by Art U Ready highlights with the intention of finding the best version of ourselves. For Silvia Hengstenberg, it highlights the essential in each one of us as a value and “takes us on this search through something as serious as humour, colour and visual poetry”.

Although the colour, humour and chromatic impulsiveness of Jesús de Miguel and the sobriety, balance and elegance of ELIURPI seem antagonistic and their approaches to artistic creation emerge from different perspectives, the Mediterranean facet is a connecting link between both artistic experiences that offer equally fascinating worlds.

The Mediterranean and Asian cultures are reflected in the pieces designed by ELIURPI, made of straw, hemp or trimmings, which have been exhibited in a perfect setting due to their chromatic and conceptual similarity to the duplex penthouse designed and planned by the architect Iker Ochotorena, based on fabric finishes, travertine stone, wood and linen.

Under the title ‘Circular Portraits’, the exhibition has brought together iconic pieces made specifically by Eli Urpi and Nacho Umpíerrez that have composed an inspiring story wrapped in a round aesthetic like their works due to the perfect communion with the chosen space, a signature house from The Sibarist portfolio.

In addition to the trimmings totems or the pieces of furniture and drawings from which they start to create their three-dimensional works, there is the edition of a book printed on watercolour paper accompanied by a monotype, on the occasion of this exhibition that coincides for the second time with the celebration of the ARCO fair.

Bang & Olufsen, a legendary Danish company specialising in audiovisual equipment with high technological and avant-garde features, has collaborated as a partner in these exhibitions, bringing the excellence of the best sound and the elegance of its design as the best companion to the works of art.

Editor: Beatriz Fabián Brihuega.