Francesc Roselló "Still Live"

Francesc Roselló "Still Live"

This painting depicts the table at the artist’s girlfriend’s house, with its view to the city of Palma, and also incorporating the characteristic brick walls of Carabanchel, his neighborhood in Madrid. The artist plays with different elements, from the oysters he has just eaten to sketches of other artworks, and things reminiscent of his life experiences, as is the Led Zeppelin shirt he’s wearing, a constant on his large format paintings. In this painting, the solitude of being alone in the artist table is the central theme, with a lone figure surrounded with the objects that promote his creativity and work, in a unique and solitary action. The elements of the table vary between land and sea nature, but all of them contain implicit sexual connotations, like the sea urchins and the bananas. We also find several references to death, like the pots and the cigarette smoke, which seems to resemble the texture of brains. That is precisely, one of the artist’s major interests, the creation of those textures and new sensations. We also find other elements, portraying the common narrative of the rest of the exhibition, like the colors used, the artist’s palette, the sea shells, the drops of liquid and the variety of flowers, most importantly, the pansies as the nostalgia for his childhood. Finally, the newspaper laying in the table is a real paper from May 25, 2024. With this element the artist locates the painting in time, reinforcing the idea of contemporaneity and accompanying the viewer in real time.
This painting portrays the decorative plates from the artist’s home and studio. The decorative motifs are a reference and a reinterpretation of the different classic art genres, like still lifes and landscapes, uniting them in a single language. Some of the recurrent elements in Roselló’s work and, more precisely, in this exhibition are tulips and artist palettes, as we can see in The Artist Table and Tres son Multitud. This way, the artist creates the feeling of temporal linearity, as if he was narrating a visual journal of his day, starting with the notions of the studio and the kitchen, cooking and creating.
This painting differs from Roselló’s usual style, presenting a shift in his trajectory by changing the size and the perspective of the objects and turning these characteristics into a game. The painting is a homage to his artistic references, like Bonnard and Botero, and is also a perfect example of the exhibition’s narrative, portraying another intimate and daily scene, the couple's home life, their privacy and autobiography. The man is almost a self-portrait, and in his underwear we find a fruit pattern, simulating a small still life. The flowers in this scene are sea lilies, typical from Mallorca, and therefore referencing the artist’s yearning and nostalgia. Some other recurrent elements are the drops falling from the faucet, the girl laying in the bathtub, and the greenish water that resembles more of a pond than a proper bath. The cigarettes, the smoke and the painting brushes laying where the toothbrushes should be, are some of the other objects that reflect that connection with the rest of the exhibition, and also the volatile essence of daily life.
Voyeur portrays a half hidden woman, hiding behind the door of a sculpted neoclassical building, inspired by a real location in Mallorca, composed by images of Adam and Eve. The woman is playing a game of hidden observation, looking at the artist as he walks by. The artist is using his real figure and his girlfriend’s figure, and is reflecting on the idea of voyeuristic romanticism.
This painting portrays a real sketchbook started by the artist in 2023, with some unfinished drawings. The intention of the painting is to convey the intimacy of the scene in a small format work, with the book over a table of smaller size than the ones depicted in another paintings of the same exhibition, which already offer a contrast with the same space. With this small table, the artist’s thoughts and ideas and the atmosphere of the studio surround us through the painting, conveying a feeling of privacy between the viewer and Roselló’s personal sketchbook, his personal journal.
Similar to The Studio’s Sink, this painting seeks to mix the notions of food and painting, intertwining the viscerality of the actions of eating and creating. It places the viewer right in the middle of the artist’s working process. It tries to portray the primal essence of human emotions, interconnected to one another. Most of the elements in the painting are marine beings that refer directly to the artist’s origins.
This self-portrait establishes a direct conversation with another work of the artist - Voyeur, depicting the artist’s face sculpted over the wall of that same building entrance. This way the artist yet again plays with the notion of still life, drawing the viewers’ attention to the small details that we all tend to overlook in our daily lives.
This painting portrays the back of the canvas and reflects on the concept of needing, as the french idiom’s literal translation declares “I need you like a leg”. It invites the viewer to wonder and imagine what could possibly be painted on the front of the painting, through the presence of the major recurrent symbols of the exhibition, as are the cigarette and its smoke, the pansy and the sketch.