XEVI SOLÁ, LUIS VIDAL

This exhibition marks the launch of Tête à Tête, a series of duo exhibitions that define the curatorial framework of the yearly exhibition program in our new Paris gallery. Through this concept, Alzueta Gallery invites two artists to engage in a creative dialogue, where their works reflect, confront, and resonate with one another. By fostering this dynamic exchange, the gallery offers visitors a unique opportunity to witness how two distinct artistic voices can interact and enrich the understanding of contemporary art.

Luis Vidal and Xevi Solà engage in a dialogue that is both figurative and psychological, exploring the creation of character. Through their respective preferred media —ceramics for Vidal, painting for Solà—they rethink the representation of individuality by playing with two distinct approaches to occupying space, treating light, and using colour.

For Xevi Solà (Santa Coloma de Farners, 1969), bright and contrasting colors counterbalance the pale faces of his figures, whose absent gaze adds to their mystery. The strength of his psychological portraits lies in the freedom of his gesture: by breaking with the conventions of realistic figuration, the artist prioritises the expression of emotional intensity, translating the inner complexity of his subjects. To the question ”Who are they?”, Xevi Solà replies “What are they thinking about?”

Luis Vidal (Barcelona, 1970) creates ceramic creatures that oscillate between fear and fascination, blending a playful aesthetic with deeply subversive reflection. Beneath the apparent naivety of his sculptures lies a sharp, incisive mind, guided by unexpected yet masterfully controlled associations of ideas. Far from being random, these compositions intrigue and unsettle, as the artist transforms a whimsical universe into a means of provoking and destabilizing the viewer’s perception. With humor and provocation, Vidal invites his audience to rethink reality through a fresh lens.

Written elements play a fundamental role for both Luis Vidal and Xevi Solà. The handwritten texts that accompany their works attract attention after an initial visual reading of the artwork, and act as additional keys to their universe. Rather than imposing a fixed interpretation, these inscriptions evoke a sense of strangeness, opening up new possibilities for interpretation and allowing unexpected meanings to emerge.

This seemingly naive, almost childlike dialogue between Solà’s paintings and Vidal’s ceramics ultimately gives rise to a strange and compelling sensation. The fragile figures of Xevi Solà and the anthropomorphic bestiary of Luis Vidal engage in a fruitful conversation in which figuration transcends the limits of reality and takes us into a hybrid space on the border between dream and waking.