IGUAPOP! EXHIBITION

HAPPENINGText: Gudrun Rau

“Iguapop!” is my favourite exhibition at Heliumcowboy Artspace this year so far. Maybe this is because it’s a group exhibition and you get to see the artwork of 9 brilliant artists. Maybe it’s because you feel as if showing work from this Spanish gallery Iguapop was creating a Mediterranean atmosphere at cold old Hamburg.

Iguapop!

Maybe it’s because Inigo Martinez Moller – Iguapop’s gallerist – and the three artists he accompanied (Blami, Mike Swaney and Victor Castillo) were just so nice and unpretentious that the preparations for the show were great fun. We even got invited to a delicious feast they prepared next door, containing what seemed like hundreds of “tortillas di patatas”, super-tasty gazpacho, huge bowls of salad, plates full of “pan con tomate” and approximately eight kilos of jamon (ham). Of course we didn’t finish that and besides, the jamon was intended to be served at the opening. But before, the exhibition had to be set up.

Iguapop!

On the ground floor with its very high ceiling 6 artists were represented. We actually increased the size of one wall to be able to hang Tim Biskup’s painting in a prominent position, right vis-à-vis to the entrance. On the right wall two large paintings of the presently hyped French artist Miss Van reached to the first floor and were framed by artwork of Sergio Mora and Adolf Gil.

Iguapop!
Victor Castillo

The left wall – always difficult because of the stairs – contained pictures of Catalina Estrada and Rai Escale, whose beautiful, with solvent and ink modified magazine pages had to be observed from up close. The second floor was left in charge of the three present artists, who started to configure the three walls there. Victor Castillo painted his wall as a background for his canvases with an impressive composition, containing sausages, chains, thunderbolts, and some gastro-intestinal worm. His arrangement radiated a strong disneyesque apocalyptic atmosphere and the dramatically lit backgrounds of his paintings let you easily understand his admiration for Goya.

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