Whenever I imagine what it must be like to be inside Laura’s head, the opening scene of The Sound of Music immediately comes to mind. Julie Andrews twists and turns in a green meadow on the top of a mountain, with that childlike freedom of thought and movement charged with adult insight.
Laura López Balza paints what she lives and lives as she paints. Everything is surprise, it has light, weight and a lot of innocence. She and her painting are one in the same.
In front of his work, in a first stage, she turns us into a sort of familiar voyeurs. We can see what is happening among figures, flowers and unreal colours, but without the capacity to intercede or interpret it. We are mere spectators of his life. However, on a second look, in inner layers, we understand that Balza has built bridges between the intimate and the universal. She speaks of us, with our joys, fears, ruptures and experiences, through her. From this perspective and unorthodox manners, she manages to delve into the depths of the human soul without being explicit or explaining too much.
On the other hand, on a technical level, in this second exhibition at the Juan Silió Gallery in Santander, we can appreciate a substantial evolution. Thanks to the use of oil in his latest works, the texture and body of the painting makes us connect in a more direct way with a certain distance and more subtle at a few centimetres, as well as his refinement in the colour that elevates his work to another qualitative level. El sol que miro y me cuenta is, of course, a declaration of intentions as an artist, but also an invitation to observe and connect with the world from another place, to enjoy colour beyond the possibilities of mundane reality and to allow ourselves to be children again or adults without complexes. In short, to look and feel with her.
Javier Ruiz Pérez
El sol que miro y me cuenta
LAURA LÓPEZ BALZA. Curated by Javier Ruiz Pérez
12th Decembar 2024 – 8th February 2025
Galería Juan Silió
C/ Sol 45, bajo. 39003 Santander.
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10:30AM – 1:30PM / 6 – 9PM