Alberto Gálvez, 1963 | Figurative painter

Spanish painter Alberto Gálvez is known for his oil on linen paintings that capture an enchanted world.

His influences run from antiquity and Renaissance imagery to poetry and French avant-garde films of the 1960s.

Throughout, he reminds us that the ideals of the classical period, proportion, balance and harmony, are still operative, inspiring and engaging.

Galvez embraces this understanding to create images that exist outside of space and time.

His exceptional use of translucent oils give an ethereal quality to his surface.

His body of work is a moving attestation to the aesthetic power of the human gaze.

Gálvez is a leader among his generation of artists in Europe who have returned to the figurative tradition, where a precise delineation of figures and objects project onto the canvas with a complex narration and allegorical overtones.

The artist’s ability to displace familiar objects and reinvent them within an innovative and contemporized context compels the viewer to perceive a new reality.

In this exhibition, “En Tierra de Sueños Azules” (In the Land of the Blue Dreams), Gálvez begins with the creative inspiration of a captured look or mannerism, then dramatically evokes the return to the true geometry of the body as expressed by 14th century Italian Renaissance painter Giotto.

The luminosity of the face is reflected in the pristine light of the blue sky and mathematical clarity of the human form, reminiscent of 15th century Italian painter Piero.

His subjects are inserted into the paintings as stationary frontal icons, front and center, challenging you to discover the meaning of their expression and the life they lead.

Born in Orihuela, Alberto Gálvez is a tenured Professor of Painting at the prestigious School of Fine Arts of Valencia, Spain.

His paintings can be found in numerous international private and corporate collections.

Gálvez has participated in over 67 solo and group exhibitions across Europe including an invitation to participate in The Madonna in Contemporary Art, a tribute for the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate, held at the Pantheon in Rome and at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Nato ad Orihuela nel 1963, Alberto Gálvez vive e lavora a Valencia.

Ha incominciato ad esporre dal 1989.

La sua pittura nasce da una piena coscienza della validità della tradizione, immessa narrativamente nel proprio immaginario sino alla determinazione di un concerto armonico, senza soluzione di continuità, tra presente e passato.

Sarebbe molto difficile stabilire l'effettivo confine, la sottilissima linea di demarcazione, tra elementi di origine storica ed altri del tutto autonomi: l'impresa, ancorché inutile, rischierebbe di smontare il «giocattolo» che, in questo caso, è un perfetto mondo creativo situato tra Arcadia e Parnaso.