‘The Homing Instinct’ presents a group of new drawings by the Spanish artist Guillermo Martin Bermejo.
Guillermo is renowned for his intimate drawings describing a romantic inner world populated by the creative minds that have comforted and inspired him. The new works in ‘The Homing Instinct’, mark a significant development in his practice. While still drawn on fragile pieces of paper taken from old notepads, the stylised realism and references of his previous works give way to a new approach to introspection. Rather than looking to famous artists or their works as a place of respite for the self, these new drawings describe a deeply personal return to Guillermo’s past, to the landscapes of his youth and the technical approach of his younger years, as if to take stock after decades of adulthood and reconnect with the most essential parts of the self.
Picasso famously said that it took him four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child, believing that ‘every child is an artist… the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’ In Guillermo’s newest works there is a similar quest but rather than looking to erase the accumulation of experience, he circles back to find out what has remained constant across the years. The same emotional truths that have echoed throughout his practice are presented in a raw unvarnished state: innocence, uncertainty, an unease with worldliness, vulnerability, fear and attraction, all viewed from a queer perspective and set within the forests and the mountains north of Madrid, the landscape of his childhood.
Figures appear isolated in the forest, sometimes stalked by ghost-like shadows that could be fears or portents, memories or lovers. They hover in the space where anxiety and excitement blur. Stylistically reminiscent of Modigliani’s early drawings with hard lines and ovoid heads, his portraits have a direct gaze and dense emotional weight that is counterbalanced by their two dimensional execution. There is a sense of deconstruction, of stripping away the affect of sophistication to reach back directly to the young innocent within. This figure then treads into the dark heart of the forest in complex scenes where the shadows take on substance. Delicate watercolour washes punctuated by intense felt tip bursts of colour echo the trepidation and unpredictability of this space, where darkness and light overlap and interweave to form cryptic, haunting narratives. More than a depiction of a place, they describe a journey back across the passage of the years and a re-encountering of the self, confronted with unflinching honesty.
‘The Homing Instinct’ is an online-only exhibition launching on 19 March. To receive the PDF catalogue of works please register via the ‘Request PDF Catalogue’ link above.
