Copper Landscapes

Silvia Lerín’s first solo exhibition at Puxagallery is titled “Copper Landscapes” and will be open to the public from February 18th to April 24th, 2021. The exhibition includes a selection of recent pieces that she has been developing in recent months during her artist residency at Casa Velázquez in Madrid thanksto the grant received from the Valencia City Council. The project that she presents in the gallery and that has the support of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports, underlines the idea of metallic oxidation as an allegory of that which reappears; canvas and paper surfaces simulate the nuances of copper or are directly combined with metal, in a delicate and subtle interplay of textures that pay tribute to the skin of painting.

Despite their apparent formal abstraction, the series exhibited at Puxagallery are the result of an autobiographical and introspective process through which Silvia Lerín investigates the transmutation of these tones dominated by the turquoise green to express her desire to resurface in each new project, in each vital stage, just as the passage of time marks traces on the metal in contact with the air. These winks of complicity to the spectators are used by the Valencian artist to explore the expressive possibilities of that transition and to evoke essential poetics; metaphors of a reality that alludes to the Phoenix Bird to turn deterioration and decadence into pure visual beauty. The show alternates large and small formats made with acrylic on canvas, wood, copper wires and mixed techniques that also include the series of graphic works “Oxide”, in which the artist uses the technique of additive collagraph printing on printmaking paper. The physical processes of the materials are used by this restless artist in a creative period of maturity and renewal, after a decade of fruitful professional experiences between London, Valencia, and Indianapolis.

— Extract of the text that the art critic Angel Rodriguez wrote about the exhibition. You can read the entire press release here