The painting "Untitled (Bathtub)" by Juan Manuel Salas Valdivia uses muted colors and layered textures, with indistinct human forms and a bathtub as prominent features. It blends figuration and abstraction, echoing themes of decay and concealment. This piece transforms an ordinary scene into a haunting exploration of memory and time, reflecting Valdivia's focus on revitalizing overlooked images by inviting speculation and introspection through the layers of paint. ...
Juan Manuel Salas Valdivia’s work centres on the transformation
of overlooked, ephemeral images into rich, layered paintings
that explore the tension between memory, materiality, and
time. Exploring pictorial phenomena and its possible bonds
with contemporary images, Salas Valdivia begins with found
photographs and videos - often sourced from obsolete books,
online archives or forgotten public sources. Engaging in a
ritualistic process of painting, Salas Valdivia gives these images
new life by breaking them down. What was once banal or
symbolically poor becomes something incarnate, tangible and
haunted.
Salas Valdivia approaches painting as a fluid, intuitive system
of signs free from surveillance. Moving between figuration
and abstraction, photography and video, he engages with
found images, working into and over them to simulate decay
and obscure their original meaning. His works resist clarity,
functioning as simulacra - fabricated relics that explore the
instability of meaning and the mutability of images over time.
For Salas Valvidia, painting becomes an act of concealment and
transformation, inviting reflection and speculation through the
slow, layered unfolding of visual memory. ...
Founded by Aubrey Higgin, Chilli began as an artist-run program in 2022. In 2023 the project evolved to establish its first permanent gallery space, and has since grown into a respected voice in the London emerging art scene. The gallery prides itself on giving overlooked artists a voice with a particular focus on cultivating international artistic dialogues.
Its programming focuses on diverse, emerging, international artists - united by a desire to tell untold stories of experience, identity & environment through unique painterly, material or conceptual processes. With a focus on painting, Chilli promotes cross-cultural exchange - bringing many international artists to London audiences for the first time. By showcasing artists across multiple continents, the gallery establishes a discursive critical voice - addressing diverse perspectives of art within the broader context of contemporary artistic practices. ...
