Thinkspace Projects presents:
Special pop-up solo exhibition in New York City
On view October 18 – October 21
Opening Reception:
Thursday, October 19 from 6-9pm
Thinkspace Projects NYC Pop-Up Location:
345 Broome Street
NYC 10013
Multidisciplinary artist Cinta Vidal illustrates new perceptions of city landscapes by detaching and reimagining the architectural formations that function as the backdrops of life. For Vidal, depicting macro and micro levels of inverted apartment buildings and city structures illustrate the various ways the world is experienced by a mass population. Having grown up with an affinity for drawing, Vidal became an apprentice at Taller de’Escenografia Castells Planas, one of the most prestigious scenography ateliers in Spain and across Europe. There, she learned the trades of scenography, painting large-scale scenes and settings for theatre and opera backdrops. Utilizing this experience, Vidal uses acrylic paint on canvas to create what she describes as her “un-gravity constructions.” She paints each artwork with close attention to detail, fully realizing each structure and the unfolding scenes within. Vidal’s combination of saturation, detail, and balance work together to allow the viewer’s gaze to absorb these various and often intersecting viewpoints.
Cinta Vidal’s architecturally-inspired paintings encapsulate the concrete formations that enclose the day-to-day turbulence experienced at the personal and community level. Too often people are focused on individuality instead of commonality, leaving little room to observe the surrounding hustle and bustle of city-life. Vidal challenges viewers to look beyond the self and broaden their perceptions of the physical and divided structures humans frequently occupy. By depicting individuality within an arrangement of occupied spaces, she captures the conflict between the multifaceted nature in which society experiences the world, internal perceptions of reality, and the inflexible architecture people inhabit. Vidal’s unrelenting yet inverted constructions symbolize the “mental structures” of the individual. Thus Vidal’s unconventional portrayal of metropolitan architecture elevates these self-revolving structures, reminding viewers that they are not alone and to pay closer attention to the many pathways of life existing amidst the masses.
Artist Statement:
“In COHABIT I go inside houses and approach public spaces, leaving behind the planetary compositional aspect of my previous works. I’m intrigued by the relationship that people establish between themselves and their immediate surroundings and now I’m zooming in to find out what’s going on in there. In contrast to my most recent works, where I played with darkness, I now strongly illuminate the scenes, which take on more vitality.
We live the spaces we cohabit from our unique vision, which may not have anything to do with the vision of the “other”. Multiplying gravity allows me to express that there are many possible perceptions of our environment. The everyday, can contain common places, but also many abysses. And I’m always surprised by the ability that humans have to live uncertainty with calmness and a certain indifference.
In this body of work, all the paintings have in common a frontal view, with a central vanishing point. Thus, I accentuate the confrontation between a parallel and ordered structure with the “disorder” of the various orientations. I also added the mirror effect in some frames. It allows me to turn the figures upside down and increasing the confusion of the viewer in the game upside down. Finally, I wanted to honor painters I admire and respect by placing some of their paintings in my scenes. You will find paintings by Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Gustav Klimt, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and Bauhaus.” – Cinta Vidal
About Cinta Vidal:
Cinta Vidal Agulló (b. 1982) has been drawing since she was a child. She studied at Escola Massana in Barcelona and at 16, she started working as an apprentice in Taller de Escenografia Castells Planas in St. Agnès de Malanyanes where she learned from Josep and Jordi Castells to love scenography and the backdrop trade. She currently lives and works in a studio located above her family’s toy store in Cardedeu, a small town near Barcelona, Spain.
Always pushing her craft forward, Vidal is also an avid muralist with murals in Hong Kong, Atlanta (Georgia), Barcelona (Spain), Vancouver (British Columbia), Kobe (Japan), Valencia (Spain), Calgary (Alberta), Honolulu (Hawaii), Culver City (California) Long Beach (California) and the Napa Valley region of Northern California.
Vidal was also recently commissioned by Facebook to paint their new headquarters in Northern California.
