Valme García, the artist who transformed the Canarian landscape into a dream poem
"Lines, colors and spatial distribution. All based on a schematic description that flows pure and clear. It is a painting without artifice and the themes are like defining poetic metaphors of a spirit sensitive to the truth of art. "With these words, written in 1975, he defined Felo Monzón the work of Valme García, a painter who inaugurated this Thursday at the CICCA, by the hand of CaixaBank and La Caja de Canarias Foundation, The exhibition "Restless Silence: Selected Work 1975-2020".
The retrospective, which can be visited at the headquarters of the Fundación La Caja de Canarias until next October 29, is made up of more than 64 pieces of different techniques and a predominance of oil, acrylic and collage. The exhibition, curated by Javier Cabrera, offers a journey through the artistic trajectory of a painter who was born in Pamplona, arrived in Gran Canaria in 1966 and belongs by right to Canarian art due to her absolute fidelity to nature and island landscapes in her extensive pictorial production.
The artist herself recalled the impact of her first encounter with the Canarian landscape, from a bird's eye view from the window of the plane that first brought her to Gran Canaria in 1966. "I was surprised by the space, the encounter with the volcanic and the colors so different from what I knew. But I am interested in contemplating nature and then taking it to my private world, with a lot of atmosphere and a certain distance; always surreal, geometric and with volumes, because I treat it more like a poem that I am maturing as if it were a dream and with the intention of seeing the world in a different way ", explained a painter who has made the reinterpretation of nature the common thread of her artistic production; yes, posed as a metaphorical gaze, as she explains, about the world that surrounds her, a dreamlike dream in which reality is transformed into visual lyricism.
Valme García pointed out that the union of the volcanic and sea water, nature and animals they have always been a source of inspiration. The insular territory, with details of his peninsular childhood. For his love of the landscape and the hospitality of the Canary Islands, Valme sent a message of encouragement and support to the population of La Palma in the face of the drama of the volcanic episode. "I try to paint the positive, extract or stay with the happy or positive part in my work. It is a reinterpretation that has more to do with dreams. I am not about to paint the urban, that's why there are no people in my paintings. Only Some time has come out, but hidden behind a door. Actually, it is what I imagine in my inner world as a poet or a musician would do who imagines an idyllic world, "she added.
The artist recalled that her first exhibition took place in 1975 and had the same scenario CICCA Cultural Center that today welcomes his retrospective. García thanked the support shown by the Fundación La Caja de Canarias throughout his career. In this sense, Olga María del Pino, Head of Social Action at CaixaBank in the Canary Islands, explained that this is the third joint action that arises from the collaboration with the Foundation, after the Call for Social Action 2021 and the call for environmental projects in the Islands. "We are in luck. We are pleased to present the first proposal of a cultural nature, because our intention, thanks to the alliance with the Foundation, is to support culture and society through different projects," he said.
"The exhibition that we present today is more than a necessary tribute to the creative work of Valme García. It shows us a solid, solvent and continuous artistic trajectory," said Manuel Lobo, vice president of the La Caja de Canarias Foundation. In addition, it points out that "in love with magical realism, as well as with the Luján Pérez School to which she is indebted, Valme's coherent artistic and creative trajectory is defined by the representation of landscape and nature. And she does so through a dreamlike, surreal, metaphysical gaze with a certain tendency to be geometrizing at times ".
Finally, Javier Cabrera, curator of the exhibition 'El silencio inquieto', describes Valme García as a painter "who breathes a special magnetism. She has a color, a geometry and a force to be highlighted. She is the only living painter of her generation. , that of the 40s with personalities such as Paco Cruz, Manolo Ruiz or Juan Betancor. Also that of Cira Ascanio, who we are now trying to recover her work. She has been an artist of enormous honesty, responsible for her own work and career and Hence the freedom to do and paint what she wanted at all times. It is curious how a painter who arrives at the age of 19 has become a true island painter because of her work, because of the concept of the territory of her work, because of the nature and the sea and its vision of the Island.
