 |
| Articles |
|
South China Morning Post, June 22, 2003
The Review, ARTS
A LASTING IMPRESSION
Hong Kong’s look of concrete and water has captivated a Spanish artist. And local collectors can’t get enough, writes Kavita Daswani.
The Spanish city of Palencia may be a long way from Hong Kong, but one of its most prolific artists has adopted our home town almost as his own.
Now based in Los Angeles, Marques de Jadraque (real name Miguel Angel Garcia) has become, somewhat inadvertently, the go-to guy for collectors interested in impressionist-style paintings of Hong Kong.
His one-man exhibition, the third in Hong Kong, is at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Central and features gently hued landscapes of Sai Kung and Shek O, as well as quirkier paintings of platters of fresh fish laid out for sale in a sampan
De Jadraque is fascinated by Hong Kong, especially its architecture; how “you look outside one window and into another”. That interest alone has provided the foundation for a new series of paintings and sculptures of tall, skinny buildings, their facades covered in tiny windows.
“Buildings in Hong Kong are like fingers,” he says. “It’s like they grow from the ground. They are basic apartment buildings, simple places to live. There is nothing pretentious about their design and architecture.
Equally, there is nothing pretentious about de Jadraque’s oil-on-canvas interpretations of the city. He spent a month here earlier this year, as a guest of 10 Chancery Lane’s owner, Katie de Tilly, painting 21 works that are on show at prices ranging from $10,000 to $55,000.
“I invited him to come, and commissioned a show on Hong Kong landscapes, although with a more classical interpretation,” says de Tilly. “We went out, all over Hong Kong, doing everything including buying fabrics in Shamshuipo.
The gallery owner says de Jadraque has filled an art niche. “Nobody was really doing landscapes in Hong Kong, “ says de Tilly. “Miguel has done Californian landscapes and I loved his style, so I asked him to paint Hong Kong in that style.
De Jadraque used his digital camera and photographed landscapes before he returned to de Tilly’s Sai Kung home to paint.
“I found that I didn’t have to actually be in front of a landscapes to paint it. I could smell the inspiration, let it settle in my mind,” he says.
De Jadraque and de Tilly have been friends for more than a decade, introduced by a mutual Spanish friend. In 1996, he came to Hong Kong with a collection of paintings for an exhibition at de Tilly’s previous apartment in Conduit Road. The subsequent show in October 2001 featured Chinese scrolls brandishing paintings of skyscrapers or delicate plants. “Hong Kong has everything,” says de Jadraque. “It has landscape, buildings, Eastern and Western culture. The way the Chinese live – that is something so different and unusual for a Westerner. I loved the scrolls, and bought ink, rice paper and Chinese brushes.” A subsequent dinner in Hong Kong left the artist so revved up on monosodium glutamate that he spent the entire night painting.
Apart from a week-long stint as a bartender in Barcelona, for which he didn’t get paid, de Jadraque, 42, has never been done anything but paint. Educated at art schools in Palencia and Barcelona, he received a call from a Los Angeles agent when he was 26, assuring him that he would be able to find work in the US. He went back and forth between both continents for a few years, but now considers Los Angeles his home.
He looks very much the painter, sporting a beard, ponytail, jeans and flip-flops. Married with three children – a 20-year-old from a previous relationship, and a four-year-old and two-year-old with his wife – he shuttles between a home in Manhattan Beach and his vast, loft-like studio – a former bachelor pad – in Harbour City. There, colourful canvases, half-completed sculptures and eye-catching installations (painted teaspoons resting against a wire bed) is where de Jadraque finds his inspiration.
He occasionally has shows in California, but has also had his pieces showcased in St. Louis, Mexico and Spain. In Los Angeles “everything is art, and everything is nothing”, he says. “In Hong Kong, there is more of a provincial feeling, but I like that. It is like Madrid and Barcelona, which also have a certain feeling. In Hong Kong, you can feel the character of the city.
Hong Kong art collectors have been picking that up. De Tilly says response to the exhibition has been enthusiastic. “There’s been an incredible reaction,” she says. “I’ve been getting tones of emails inquiring about different paintings.”
De Jadraque is pleased with the feedback – not just for practical reasons but, naturally, for more artistic ones. “It is great to know people understand and appreciate the techniques I have been practicing for 20 years,” he says. “Some people see the landscapes as more realistic, others as more impressionist. But they are all just very personal.”
My Beautiful Hong Kong by Marques de Jadraque
10 Chancery Lane Gallery, 10 Chancery Lane (off Old Bailey Street) SoHo, Central. Mon-Fri, 11am-7pm; Sat, 11:30am-6pm. Inquiries: 2810 0065. Until July 19
|
|
 |
 |
|
