On Saturday, October 4th, Wally Workman Gallery is excited to open Más allá de la realidad by Spanish artist Juan Luís Jardí. Infused with the Magical Realism native to Spanish culture, Jardí’s paintings depict a reality that feels only a glimmer away from our existing one. By setting his work in the past, he further pushes the boundary of our recollection, blurring what could be a memory into a dream. Presenting these reality shifts as ordinary occurrences within daily life highlights the strangeness of our actual existence- at once crowded as well as desolate, bleak as well as euphoric.

A mix of magic realism with certain influences of Pop Art and surrealism, Jardi's figures and themes illustrate the contrast in our lives and the doubts we are faced with as humans. He strives for his work to provoke feelings: nostalgia, melancholy, loneliness and a sense of uneasiness as well as feelings of euphoria and calm. Jardi's paintings offer a vintage perspective much like a trip into the past.

Always both disquieting and attractive , the work of J.L. Jardí possesses an intense inner force; able to create a very special atmosphere, born of silence of technique, of space, of the absence of the figure even though it is often present. His characters are spectators who contemplate, while absorbed in thought, the reality that Jardí depicts. Stillness, space and the unknown. Perhaps what Jardí is painting is the future, what will happen; he creates a scene and poses a question. What path will events take ? Diverse possibilities are offered, but fate alone will decide. For now, we have the work´s inner power, always well wrought from a technical point of view.

(Joan S. LLop, Art Critic)

Juan Luís Jardí has exhibited internationally since 1983. He has received over a dozen awards for his art, including three Medals of Honor in the annual BMW Painting Prize. His art is permeated by a sense of nostalgia, rendered beautifully, realistically, and sometimes with elements of surrealism. Jardí lives and works in Barcelona, Spain.