(Eclipses Series, 2006, 103x103 cm.) (Eclipses Series, 2006, each 185x155 cm.) (Eclipses Series, 2006, each 185x155 cm.) Jose Maria Sicilia’s solo exhibition “Eclipses” is on display at Chantal Crousel Gallery from March 24 to May 5. Born in 1954, Jose Maria Sicilia is one of the most representative artists of 1980s Spain, skilled in mastering materials and emphasizing the material tension of painting. Moving from figuration to neo-geometric, then from geometric abstraction to informel, he has since carved out a unique style with his synthetic wax paintings. Clearly moving from the object to the mental image, from form to informel, between poetry and imagination, dreams and awakening, he explores the extraordinary butterfly phenomenon as an ungraspable image. Sicilia’s poetic works often contemplate their impossible forms; beneath layers of thick, semi-transparent wax, they present non-image figures and psychedelic, elusive light, attempting to explore the core and truth of painting. In the “Eclipses” series, he continues to capture these extraordinary images and fleeting light, approaching an ungraspable mystery.

French art critic Georges Didi-Huberman wrote in the exhibition catalogue: “One could almost say that in each image, its main work rigorously conforms to the particular appearance of butterfly life: their beauty and infinite truth of form, color, intention, and questioning are thoroughly understood in this fragility and reproduction. Of course, these are also the images and butterflies: their anomalous forms and indefinite content within this metaphysical realm.” “For Sicilia, wax becomes a necessary substance in his dialogue with painting and light: layers of density dominate this substantial light, not only pouring liquid memory onto the painting’s surface, but also, through this method, incorporating it into the reflection of painting and light, creating such an internal space of levitation.”