Asprey Has Transformed Its London Headquarters Into a Stunning Exhibition Space for Chilean Artist Guillermo Lorca’s Dreamy Paintings

In, Fires, one of Guillermo Lorca’s smaller paintings, a
young girl with an intense gaze stares out at the viewer. With rosy
cheeks and her hair piled up into a loose bun, her expression is
calm and serene, despite a blazing fire behind her. Pink, yellow,
and blue flames turn into stifling grays and black, as smoke twists
around the scene. Look again and you might notice a small cabin in
the distance, or the silhouette of an unexpectedly scrawny cat
leaping through the air. 

This is textbook Lorca; for him,
it’s all about the details. The flames, Lorca says ahead of
the opening of his first UK exhibition, come from images he found of the Notre Dame
fire earlier this year. “In one part of the painting, you have this
explosion that we might relate to something bad,” he explains. “But
in the same way, fire is also cleansing and beautiful.”

In a unique collaboration with
British luxury brand Asprey, art dealer and auctioneer Simon de
Pury has organized a 13-piece exhibition of Lorca’s
work at the brand’s headquarters in London. And while the idea of
presenting artwork in a shop may seem unusual, Asprey’s New Bond
Street location goes far beyond your average storefront.

The premises, which comprise
five former townhouses connected by a central courtyard, arguably
offer more space than most galleries, and boast beautiful interiors
featuring high ceilings adorned with chandeliers, and opulent
furnishings. Inside, Lorca’s intricate works decorate the walls of
the space as though it were a home.

“Every single one of these works
require a lot of time; they grow on you,” de Pury says.
In the drawing room, before
a particularly magnificent space, Lorca and de Pury, along with
John Rigas, Asprey’s chairman, sit down to chat about the venture.
“I like art not to be on a pedestal,” de Pury says. “The most
inspiring thing is to live with art, and I feel like here you can
do that, in a way.” 

Lorca agrees. “This space is as
big as a gallery, so you have the power of two worlds,” he says.
“We’re so used to clean, white, stark spaces now, but in Picasso’s
[day], you’d view works in the studio of the artist.”

Lorca stands comfortably before
one of his largest paintings, The Encounter, as though he were in his own studio. In the
piece, a tree, a recurring motif in his work, looms large in the
backdrop, while cats, birds, and unidentifiable animals roam the
space. It’s both mysterious and emotive, and like several of
Lorca’s other paintings, it also includes the image of
Javiera Gaeta, his girlfriend and
muse. Under one of her feet, Lorca has painted his own decapitated
head. “I use the same characters often, but it’s not an
obligation,” he says. “I
start with something that’s almost impossible to describe because
it’s a feeling.” 

“I have to have that
relationship to an emotion,” Lorca continues, as he walks into
another room. “If a feeling lingers for a long time, I think
[about] what kinds of symbols, what kinds of actions have a
connection to that emotion.” He gestures to Spring Pond, a painting of an otherworldly, blue-striped cat
that was born initially out of wild curiosity. “I’d been reading
about the Victorian period when people were discovering new species
for the first time,” Lorca says. “I wanted to convey that romantic,
magical mood.” 

Lorca’s fascination with the Old
Masters is evident in his skillful painting technique, but he also
immerses himself in contemporary culture. One set of paintings
depicts young girls with pastel-colored hair
(The
Landing,
The Girl in the Peacock
Room,
The Zulo’s
Game), and he cites both
Francis Bacon and the 1980s Japanese animations he watched as a
child as influences. 

Given Lorca’s deep knowledge of
pop culture, it’s fitting that de Pury happened upon his work on
social media. “Firstly I thought, My god, this man clearly knows
how to paint, his virtuosity is fascinating. There are so many
different elements from the history of art that are melded
together. Your first impression with these works is always really
different from when you start really examining them. You discover a
lot of things, some of which are actually disturbing, but one thing
is clear: I knew this was a very special talent unlike anyone I’d
seen before.” 

The exhibition runs through
November 1, 2019, at 167 New Bond Street, Mayfair, London W1S 4AY,
from Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Sunday from 12 p.m.–5
p.m.

The post Asprey Has Transformed Its London Headquarters Into
a Stunning Exhibition Space for Chilean Artist Guillermo Lorca’s
Dreamy Paintings appeared first on artnet News.