The Chirivella Soriano Foundation is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the artist Santiago Ydañez in the rooms of its Palau de Valeriola until 9th January. The exhibition reviews Ydañez work over the last two decades, consisting of large-format works of images of human faces, animals, saints and bodies, which raise questions about personal representation, self-portraiture and character construction.
With a total of 36 works the exhibition occupies three floors of the Palau Joan de Valeriola, which is the headquarters of the Chirivella Soriano Foundation. The exhibition takes an in perspective look at the career of Santiago Ydañez, its development internationally and its particular emphasis on people's faces.
The exhibition makes it clear that Ydañez is interested in human evolution together with religious imagery because the merging of different spiritualities, as well as different animalities is the trademark of his work. Here the artist combines religious images with those of nature, especially wildlife, and of human faces with an air of mystical absence or powerful romantic presence with scenes taken from Natural History museums. Nevertheless, some of his pieces have a strong decorative feeling with an aura lying somewhere between palatial and museum-like.
