Gemma Solà Sotos
Gemma Solà Sotos is a maker and a thinker, whose art plays into the furthest reaches of the mind. Using powerful visual cues and everyday imagery to slip past ones preconceptions, the artist kindles subtle internal shifts.
Gemma Solà Sotos seems to play with only two ends of an essential human spectrum; playful humour, and an utterly serious outlook. These two seem so far apart, though come together seamlessly in the artist's curiously soothing paintings and texture rich stretched works on canvas. Tackling strikingly relevant topics, such as the relationship between art and commerce, work and waste, Solà Sotos explores the way in which our minds form attachments between the emotions around these subjects, and our memories. Her artwork have deep roots in her childhood, and though her artistic career started only after leaving school, Solà Sotos thinks of her relationship with art as a life long friendship. The artist continues to draw from this relationship as never ending source of inspiration for her work.
Gemma Solà Sotos in her studio.
Objects are of the utmost importance, they are imbued with near magical properties that turn symbol into sign, and back again.
Somehow the artwork acts as a cypher, a way of communicating the secret hidden life of things, and in these paintings presented for TheArtists, Gemma Solà Sotos picks the woven heavy duty plastic bag, the red high heel, and the shopping cart to carry her meaning. In the stricter, abstract works, items and tokens act as the starting points for the eyes to unravel across the canvas. For in the quick-fire diptych Things That Can Happen on a Rooftop (2019) such repetitive elements as a TV arial in cruciform shape draw the eye to the nuclear points of composition, immediacy sparking connections that speak to the power of this artist. These items become lost in the compositions, shifting and changing like clouds, as we find new shapes and give fresh meaning to those forms. The works that Gemma Solà Sotos presents for TheArtists range from simple colourful works, to complex compositions, yet Solà Sotos has an unmistakeable signature – an overarching interest in negative space, and the vast yawning silences created by unmarked canvas.
Text by Jonathan Ferguson
Experiences that shake you up completely are enriching to me in many ways.
Biography Gemma Solà Sotos
born 1993 in Barcelona, Spain
lives and works in Munich, Germany
Education
since 2018 Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany / Painting and Graphics, Class Prof. Gregor Hildebrandt
2014-2018 Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona, Spain
Exhibitions (selection)
2020
Annual Exhibition Academy of Fine Arts Munich, MUCCA, Munich, Germany
Der River, Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei, Leipzig, Germany
2019
Let’s go home and watch Harry Potter, Louandlouise Gallery, Munich, Germany
Annual Exhibition Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany
Contactes, Curated by Clara Ielou, M10 Space Collective exhibition, TKM room, Barcelona, Spain
I don’t like crack jokes anymore, Atelier Gregor Hildebrandt, Munich, Germany (DOUBLE SHOW)
Galerie Kalaschnikow Opening, Galerie Kalaschnikow, Munich, Germany
Eix vital a les Naus Bessones, Llum Barcelona Poblenou, art and architecture annual festival, Spain
2018
Sense Títol, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Fleeting, Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany
2017
Academix’ collective by PEDAB, La Virreina Centre de la Imatge, Barcelona, Spain
Béns pel Bé, CREA space, Barcelona, Spain (SOLO)
Works by Gemma Solà Sotos
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Flors
2021 / Acrylic on canvas / 180 x 160 cm / 70.9 x 63.0 in
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sold
After winter took us
2022 / Acrylic on canvas / 120 x 110 cm / 47.2 x 43.3 in
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Cistella de fruites
2022 / Acrylic on canvas / 120 x 110 cm / 47.2 x 43.3 in
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Picnic de wapas
2022 / Mixed media on canvas / 120 x 110 cm / 47.2 x 43.3 in
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sold
La reina del burlesque
2021 / Acrylic, charcoal and oil pastel on canvas / 91 x 66 cm / 35.8 x 26.0 in
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Girar el rizo
2020 / Acrylic and spray on canvas / 170 x 140 cm / 66.9 x 55.1 in
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Llàntia
2021 / Acrylic, charcoal and oil pastel on canvas / 120 x 95 cm / 47.2 x 37.4 in
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sold
Great fun
2021 / Acrylic and pastel on canvas / 80 x 60 cm / 31.5 x 23.6 in
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Neu sobre jazz III
2019 / Acrylic, oil pastel and spray on canvas / 50 x 40 cm / 19.7 x 15.7 in
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It was a Nice Cart Ride
2019 / Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas / 120 x 90 cm / 47.2 x 35.4 in
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sold
Express Kaufen Zone
2019 / Mixed media and plastic bag on canvas / 23 x 19 cm / 9.1 x 7.5 in
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Express Kaufen Zone
2019 / Mixed media and plastic bag on canvas / 23 x 19 cm / 9.1 x 7.5 in
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sold
Express Kaufen Zone
2019 / Mixed media and plastic bag on canvas / 23 x 19 cm / 9.1 x 7.5 in
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Express Kaufen Zone
2019 / Mixed media and plastic bag on canvas / 23 x 19 cm / 9.1 x 7.5 in
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sold
Things that Happen on a Rooftop
2019 / Acrylic on canvas / each 100 x 91 cm / 39.4 x 35.8 in
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sold
Thanks for Seeing u
2019 / Acrylic on canvas / 120 x 95 cm / 47.2 x 37.4 in