'Sopa de Anguilas' by Juan Manuel Salas

Borrowing from the frescoes found in the Byzantine chapels of the 16th century, artist Juan Manuel Salas' solo exhibition Sopa de anguilas [Eel Soup] opened on August 31st at CURRO, located in the Santa Teresita neighborhood.

The exhibition consists of a series of large-format paintings that offer the possibility of delving into interconnected narratives that take us through various temporalities, like in our dreams.

Upon entering the gallery, the contrast between the gallery's white walls and the paintings awakens the sensation of being in the ruins of a convent, facing damp and weathered frescoes. The paintings seem to emerge from the walls, revealing and concealing ghost-images that seem to tell a series of stories only hinted at as veils within the composition of the painting.

Juan Manuel Salas creates points of tension between erasure and revelation, where images converge, touch, emerge, and transport us to the tranquility of a Mediterranean landscape, warm still lifes, and the sensation of both the jungle's humidity and the bittersweet scent of oranges.

A flash of light rises and illuminates prominently in a series of three paintings arranged as a triptych on the side mural of the room. Throughout the tour, the path is interrupted by a painting lying on the floor, with metallic edges, almost in the opposite corner of the room; a light layer of resin covers the painting, creating the illusion of being submerged or contained within a pond. The reflection draws us into the painting and reveals images that remind me of stories of expeditions to another continent.

Salas uses a large concrete block as his canvas. Its size and irregular shape remind me of cave paintings found somewhere high up in the mountains, as if this block extracted from its origin bore witness to the traces of some civilization.

The anachronistic relationship established by the images allows them to be situated in different spaces and times. They appear as symptoms of specific eras and places that emerge through the cracks, opening up new narrative possibilities.

The images found in the paintings are part of the artist's accumulation and preservation. They seemingly have no connection to each other; however, what happens between them is infinite, leading to an unconscious response to the creation of an archaeology of images.

The paintings function as bearers of memory that establish timeless connections, layers overlapping, leaving the image veiled as a witness to a moment.

— Andrea Linares

Translated to English by Sebastián Antón-Ojeda