ORKYS - Breaking the boundaries between street and the white box 

 

 

 

An orchid in a deep forest

sends out its fragrance

even if no one is around

to appreciate it.

 

Confucious

 

 

 

In the East the orchid represents perfection (for the symmetry of its petals with the stem) and purity, while in the West it’s related to love, for its ability to grow everywhere. “Orkys” is the scientific term for “orchid” and it's the title of the show, meticulously chosen by the artist, to best express the exhibition’s leitmotif and, at the same time, to render homage to his passion for botany.

Orchids appear, freshly and delicately, on the backgrounds of HIMBAD’s new series, where his typical supernatural creatures show their special powers. A bat, suspended upside down, is staring at us; from its open jaws, we can see the mysterious eyes of another entity. The same eyes show up from the huge and scary fauces of a feline monster. Orchids appear in the woods where a simple house fluctuates in the air, against the marvelous multilayered forest background, while a little cat interrupts the composition, surfing on a cloud.

 

Vegetative mutants, the orchids transform and re-generate in multiple ways, just as HIMBAD`s characters, mutant entities, symbols of the artist’s judicious selection of astounding variety. The scenes he creates are a compendium of graphic metamorphoses. They seem to be generated by a stream of pre-logical neuronal connections, drawn on a dream. Free from any predictive sketches, the artist lets the composition to self-generate, we perceive the freedom of happening in his canvas and the absence of rules limitation.

HIMBAD depicts a fantastic world, with a distinctive and unique aesthetic, unveiling an anthology of artistic inspiration which sources from a heritage of high culture, with references to mythology, poetry, literature and science.

 

Just like the orchids adapt to different environments, we find HIMBAD’s artworks spread around the most random locations. His paintings have been consecrated by appearing in real temples of art, such as: the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Modern in London or MoMA New York, as well, in form of murals, on the walls of the most remote and unexpected places: Ibiza, Chiangmai, or New York.

 

 

Michela Sena

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