German artist Julia Benz will be opening this Friday “In a While Crocodile”, her first first solo show in Spain at the Valencia-based gallery Plastic Murs and presenting a new and bold body of work. Colourful and expressive compositions that give shape to a jungle where abstracted vegetation meet figuration combining contemporary painting and urban art in a very specific way.
For Julia Benz “a painting begins with painting not an idea”, that is, with the act of painting, not a preconceived concept. Trained at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the Universität der Künste Berlin, where she currently lives and works, Benz recalls been fascinated by a painting by Cezanne since the age of three, and how, 20 years later that fascination became her calling.
In “In a While Crocodile” the viewer meets an open and passion filled body of work that is not limited by any constraints. Confronted with vivid contrasts of light and dark shades, bright colours, and figurative and abstract imagery, the viewer needs to dive into the work in order to fully grasp its meaning.
Her work is a kind of jungle that is ordered on an abstract basis referring to the growth and development of nature, organically and where overlapping elements and layers, shapes and strokes come together in a wild amalgam where the materiality of painting and its strong chromaticism stands out.
The exhibition open this Friday on May 5 and will run through June 9 at the gallery located on Carrer de Dénia, 45, 46006, Valencia, Spain.
More info on:
www.plasticmurs.com
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
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