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Lazarides is pleased to present ‘Wounded’, Juan Miguel Palacios’ rst solo London exhibition.
“I have always been fascinated by the human face and it’s gestural language because of its communicative character and beauty. A face can transmit so many different emotions with only a small modi cation of the facial features and this is what I want to explore through the featured works.
A common denominator of the big cities we live in, such as New York or London, is the racial and cultural diversity. Dynamic cities, full of life that attract and welcome millions of different people. Fascinating cities, offering all kinds of comforts, luxuries, and pleasures which at the same time can be extremely individualist and solitary where very few people manage to realise their dreams. An amalgam of apparently happy and blissful faces that after a closer inspection reveal an expression of fatigue and pain, as a result of day-to- day experiences.
I identify all these life experiences as ‘wounds’ and it is these ‘wounds’ that inevitably leave an imprit or a mark on our faces. This was the starting point for the works in this series and the exhibition is an investigation of these different emotions through gestures.
In a metaphorical way, I use the ambiguous face of a woman, in which pleasure and pain are mixed in a single gesture, generating a feeling of uncertainty.
I have tried to investigate further by looking for new ways of representation, I use a drywall and transparent vinyl, replacing the traditional canvas. I strike and burn the drywall until it is broken, as a synonym of all those experiences that mark us and con gure our expressions. The transparent vinyl is a synonym of identity, where I represent different facial gestures and because of their transparent nature, allow us to see their interior.”
While his work has a clear figurative language, the large-scale paintings of Juan Miguel Palacios contain a strong conceptual load, where his work developed in series, has a constant wandering of the individual's identity and its relationship with the environment. Concepts such as mourning, duel, luxury, restlessness, and inequality, are constants vital in his work.
Juan Miguel Palacios, continually explores the complex range of human emotions, with a free, powerful and always modern technique.
He is driven by the search for new forms of expression and fuses sociopolitical themes with personal experiences and historical antecedents of art, creating a unique and modern environment on the most outstanding and controversial issues of contemporary society.
Canvas, vinyl, methacrylate, aluminum, drywall,... surfaces where Juan Miguel Palacios presents his shocking and extensive work.
Born in Madrid in 1973, Juan Miguel Palacios begins to paint at the early age of 6 years.
After a long journey with many Art Professors and Fine Art Schools, at age 12 he joined the studio of the renowned Spanish painter Amadeo Roca Gisbert (disciple of Joaquin Sorolla) for six years. Along those years, he was educated and formed in a strict academic training until he joined the Faculty of Fine Arts in Madrid in 1991. When he had completed his college degree, in 1997 he founded the Laocoonte Art School of Madrid. During this period, he will combine mentoring and teaching with the development of his artist career with exhibitions in different cities of Spain and countries of Europe. Works as a muralist, theater scenographer, and film posters painter will string along with him during these years.
Currently, he resides in NY since 2013.
Lazarides is one of the foremost galleries in contemporary art, directed by Steve Lazarides and representing over 40 artists from across the world.
Lazarides works with a motley mix of artists, each with their own story to tell, who refuse to be categorised and who share Steve’s grit and resolve for showmanship. From spray painting to taxidermy, electrical installations to wall pastings, Lazarides’ artists and their shows are renowned for their de ant staging and contemporary art world rule-breaking.
The gallery has represented a number of long-standing artists since their artistic in-fancies, including 3D, Jonathan Yeo, JR and Vhils, while equally nurturing young and undiscovered talent traced from Brazil, Israel, France, China, the USA and the UK.
Lazarides Rathbone in Fitzrovia is Lazarides’ agship gallery and is set in a four storey Georgian townhouse. Recent shows have included JR: Crossing, 2015, Oliver Jeffers: Measuring Land and Sea, 2015, and Zevs: The Big Oil Splash, 2016. To mark its tenth anniversary in 2016, the gallery presented large-scale group show Still Here: A Decade of Lazarides, featuring work from over 30 artists including Banksy, Jonathan Yeo, JR, Nina Pandolfo and Miaz Brothers.
2016 saw the opening of the Banksy Print Gallery at Mondrian London on the South Bank. The new permanent art space presents a dedicated platform for secondary market editions and will provide access to the world of art collecting and to key pieces that gained Banksy notoriety and exposure.
Lazarides is widely recognised for its dramatic off site, off kilter events and theatrical group shows in major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and in London’s Old Vic Tunnels.
