Manuel Solano: Jacuzzi

Manuel Solano: Jacuzzi

16.09.2021–27.11.2021

Kunsthalle Lissabon presents Jacuzzi, the first solo show in Portugal by Berlin-based, Mexican artist Manuel Solano. Some viewpoints shaped our entire idea of the world, then some others remain etched in our memory and, like a smell, will always be able to carry us away from anything we are doing to bring us back to the very same place and moment we “smelled” that view for the first time.

Some viewpoints can change, as the things that surround them usually do, but the feeling that the first memory of them evokes will never change, rather, it will only increase in its intensity over time.

From these reminiscences, deeply imprinted in Manuel Solano’s memory, the artist creates their paintings. After Solano had lost their eyesight as a result of an HIV-related infection, the mental landscape they are holding on to became the roots for a universe ripe with visual references to pop culture, imaginary places and past experiences.

In Jacuzzi, four big paintings portray four viewpoints that the artist never experienced during their lifetime. Drawing on their mental setting, Solano depicts things that others cannot see but through the artist’s paintings. A door that seems to perfectly frame the leather sofa of a waiting room; an unmade bed seen from a jacuzzi; a spiral staircase surrounded by plants; and a black sink with a green bar of soap and a red towel.

Solano‘s practice entails applying paint to the canvas with their own hands, and with what the artist calls a “haptic” approach, using pins, string, and pipe cleaners which function as a map, outlining the different areas of the canvas. Following this method, Solano created an impressive, intimate, and powerful collection of large-scale paintings depicting pop icons, Hollywood actresses and formidable female figures as an autobiographical pantheon of the painter’s formative influences. Beginning from their solo show Heliplaza at Pivô in São Paulo these figures have started to be replaced by the memories of décor and architecture that not only marked the artist's childhood but also formed their conception of space and society while defining their personality. In Jacuzzi, together with their series An Interior, A Sensation, An Instant from 2019, the imagination of the artist became the source material for their paintings, which acquire a more sensual and darker air, but where architecture and décor still seem to play the main role.

Through this series of viewpoints, the artist probes the energy of their imagination but also the structural lines that seem to have shaped their idea of the world. Manuel Solano once said “I have absolutely no interest in making art if it’s not about myself. I don’t see the point”. Nothing better than their words signal the unapologetic self-expression as the ultimate place for political agency.

Manuel Solano was born in Mexico City in 1987. Now Solano lives and works in Berlin. Solo exhibitions: Heliplaza, Pivô (2021), Seized by the Left Hand, Dundee Contemporary Arts (2020), Portraits, Peres Projects, Berlin (2019), I Don’t Wanna Wait For Our Lives To Be Over, ICA, Miami (2018), Oronda, Open Forum, Berlin (2018), PUNCHIS PUNCHIS PUNCHIS PUM PUM PUNCHIS PUNCHIS PUNCHIS, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Cidade do Mexico (2016), Inherent Vice | Manuel Solano, Galería Karen Huber, Cidade do México (2016). Group shows: City Prince/sses, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019), FR –Visual AIDS, PARTICIPANT INC, New York (2019), Strange Messengers, Peres Projects, Berlin (2018), 2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage, New Museum, New York, THEMSELVES, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Oregon (2017), Straight From Mexico City, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio (2016), Open Sesame, Lumber Room, Portland, Oregon (2016).

Kunsthalle Lissabon is kindly supported by República Portuguesa / DGArtes, Coleção Maria e Armando Cabral.