The Universitat de València offers a journey through the African landscape at the La Nau Cultural Centre, through the paintings of the Valencian artist Calo Carratalá in the exhibition There is no space, everything is time. Africa in memory. The exhibition takes place on Wednesday, 19 June at 8:00pm at the Oberta Hall and the cloister of La Nau until 29 September. The Universitat de València reaffirms its commitment to current issues: the climate emergency, the limits of natural resources, etc., in the same year that the UV celebrates the 525th anniversary of its foundation and the city receives the European Green Capital Status.
The exhibition displays works of different dimensions, from large formats to small panels, as well as travel notebooks, which reflect the evolution of the artist – who has stood firm in reclaiming the landscape as part of contemporary art by introducing it into modernity through an abstract gaze. Carratalá seeks to transmit the light and colours of Africa through this project created purposefully for La Nau of the UV, and inspired by his trip to Senegal in 2023, although he has been travelling and creating art about Africa since 2017.
According to the curator of the exhibition and art historian Marisa Giménez Soler, the artist transforms the space into ‘a refuge and pictorial temple. The senses travel through the depth and the magic of vegetation, undergrowth, reflections, water and sky.’
Three baobabs stand tall in the cloister, which Carratalá has painted in red on a white background that invite visitors to enter the Oberta Hall, where several large oil paintings create an immersive experience through landscape.
Calo Carratalá, whose work is characterised by a deep commitment to the experience of travelling, has developed his collections from his explorations of different natural environments over more than 30 years. From the snow-capped mountains of Norway to the Amazon rainforest and the African landscape, Carratalá has expressed his great interest in the interaction between representation and abstraction, art and nature. During his month-long trips, the artist takes notes in his sketchbook, with his watercolours and pencils, and takes photographs. On his return, he keeps the material for several months and then begins to paint the collections.
Marisa Giménez highlights Carratalá’s dedication and skill: ‘Calo has been constantly working for decades as a studio painter, demonstrating his skills in both large formats and small works, and with an eye set on landscaping, a pictorial tradition that he modernises both technically and in its purpose. In Calo’s work, there is a warning about the undiscovered landscape that inspired the romantic spirit, the need to preserve it, to protect it through art.’
Calo Carratalá concludes by showing his satisfaction and pride to work with the Universitat de València: ‘For me, showing my work and collaborating with the Universitat de València has been a privilege and a pride, as it has been a while since the exhibition was in Valencia. The La Nau exhibition is an specific work inspired in a trip to Senegal I took in 2023, and it was a very special personal challenge.’
Calo Carratalá was born in Torrent (Valencia) in 1959 and is a painter with a solid academic background and an important exhibition career that began in the early 1990s. Carratalá is one of the leading figures in contemporary landscape painting in Spain.He graduated in Fine Arts from the Faculty of San Carlos of Valencia and was awarded a scholarship from the Spanish Academy in Rome in 2000, which led him to spend a considerable period in Italian capital. This experience marked the beginning of a career in which travel and extended stays in different countries around the world became the driving force and the reason for his evocative series of paintings.
The rugged, desolate and imposing snow-capped mountains of Norway, the hidden jungles of the Amazon and the inspiring landscapes of Tanzania are some of the subjects to which Carratalá often returns, demonstrating a fierce desire to explore the intimate paths that unite art and nature.
Early in his career, Carratalá received a number of prizes and awards, including the First Bancaja Painting Award, the First Prize of the Salón de Otoño of the Real Academia Galega de Belas Artes, the First Prize of the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia and the Gold Medal in the 75th International Art Exhibition of Valdepeñas.
His work has been exhibited in numerous collections, galleries, museums and contemporary art fairs both in Spain and internationally. These are some of the galleries where Carratalá has held exhibitions: Ray Gun, Nave Diez, Val i 30, Cuatro, Walden Contemporary, Color Elefante, OneStudio, Doce Islas, Paz y Comedias, Alba Cabrera and Shiras in Valencia; Bores & Mayo and María Llanos in Cáceres, Egam and GWA in Madrid, Alameda in Vigo, Dieciséis in San Sebastián, Museo del Ruso in Alarcón (Cuenca), Galería Carmen del Campo in Córdoba, and Galería Espiral de Noja in Cantabria.
His work has also been exhibited at the Carme Contemporary Culture Centre (CCCC), the Palau de la Música and the Universitat de València. As well as in the castles of Alaquàs (Valencia) and Mora de Rubielos (Teruel), the Bancaja Foundation (Sagunt) and the Contemporary Art Space (ECA). Finally, he has exhibited at the castle of Ribarroja del Turia (Valencia), the Metropolitan Art Space of Torrent (EMAT), the Antonio Pérez Foundation in Cuenca, the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid), the Spanish College in Paris, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Palestrina, the Museo Archeologico Oraziano in Licenza (Rome) and at fairs such as Arco, Arte Lisboa, Beijin Art Fair, Affordable Art Fair London, Hybrid Art Fair, Just LX Lisboa and Art Madrid.
