Eduardo Millán. Autorretrato en el estudio, 2021

Almeria,

After participating in the latest edition of ESTAMPA, a few weeks ago, with the help of Gärna Art Gallery, the Jerez artist Eduardo Millán stopped at the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Realism in Almería to exhibit “The Green Room”, around twenty still lifes, self-portraits and portraits that propose a slower and more careful contemplation of what is close to us. His workshop is, in fact, the thematic source of many of these compositions, as a place that, in the words of Juan Manuel Martín Robles, curator of this project and director of the center, condenses his attention in the world, is suggestive and poetic and that Above all, it contains and encourages experiences.

In these everyday belongings and spaces, Millán finds an inner transcendence that he tries to bring to his canvases, where he very often also adds his own presence through reflections in mirrors, with different purposes: giving people to see while allowing themselves to be seen, denying ornaments. or details that reduce sincerity both in your environment and in yourself; suggest the close ties between the act of painting and that of looking and convey to the viewer the intimate experience that both entail; in addition to showing himself as part of the place where his creations are born and live, in the exact location that he occupies in each case in that studio that he incorporated into his work five years ago, which is linked to both his biography and his profession and which It is located in the monumental Plaza de la Asunción in its city, Jerez. In short, he chooses to present himself to us at the center of what he represents, as part of a moment in a location of which he wants to give a reliable testimony and of which, inevitably, he is a part.

Eduardo Millan. Raúl in the studio, 2022

The Cadiz native cultivates a direct and objective pictorial style, from the desire to give an account of the truth that his eyes can capture and to share what is today his place in the world at different moments in time: the only two exterior views that are part of This sample corresponds to the balcony of the main floor of that workshop, one of them is daytime and the other nighttime.

He almost always works from life, emphasizing that the elements that make up his compositions are related and allow themselves to be affected by each other: they offer a lot of information in their apparent simplicity and together they give rise to a complex cosmos even though it is very easily achievable; The author seems to want to influence the habitability and perfection of certain corners as they are and what the pieces and spaces that we contemplate in his works are biographical, part of a life experience. The critic Bernardo Palomo has referred to these images as rational episodes of pure mathematics, perspective formulas, chronological analysis of hours, time and its lights.

Eduardo Millan. Assumption Square. Jerez de la Frontera, 2019

He also applies this desire for truth to nudes, sometimes fragmented, although they do not reflect these human weaknesses, and to still lifes with fruits and vegetables that he never stops exploring and reexploring, accompanied by utensils that help define the dimensions of these motifs. In the arrangement of these objects there is no chance, nor any accessory details; Those foods and the light of their surroundings are put at the service of the transmission of warmth in the interiors: Millán’s leave no room for doubt in those who contemplate that they are inhabited; They are, in fact, another variant of self-portrait. This artist’s pieces are never neutral, but point out experiences, even when they lack a human figure.

Until October 28, 2024, painters who wish to do so can request to participate in a workshop on still life with Millán. It will take place, at MUREC itself, from November 8 to 10.

Eduardo Millan. Still life with corn cobs. Self-portrait (fragment), 2023
Eduardo Millan. Still life with corn cobs. Self-portrait, 2023

Eduardo Millan. “Green room”

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY SPANISH REALISM. MUREC

Paseo de San Luis, s/n

Almeria

From October 25, 2024 to January 12, 2025

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