Maria Pratts, the emerging artist you should discover

BarcelonaMarria Pratts (Barcelona, ​​1988) is one of the most prominent emerging names among contemporary artists. She has been making her way in the international art market for years, and in fact, her work is valued at a very high level compared to other painters under 40. "Now is the time for it to reach the general public," says her gallery owner, Jordi Mayoral, convinced. The gallery on Consell de Cent Street in Barcelona has just opened a dazzling exhibition that showcases Pratts's work in her city. Florescence.

Pratts is an artist who is not afraid: the exhibition is made up of fifteen large-format canvases, up to three meters, and a couple of papersIt maintains the intriguing and festive essence of his work, with its iconic pink color and ghostly presences, but now exudes an unusual happiness. "Marria just became a mother," reveals the gallery owner who painted, reds that are Lovers. Some smileys appear in every painting, reinforcing the pop spirit of the works and the happiness they exude. These paintings have one interpretation from a distance and another from up close, when you see the stroke, the details, the thickness, hidden secrets. "intuition." "His commitment to color, with a very restrictive range of colors, indicates how his intention is to delve deeper and investigate," he adds. "Music or a walk."

Fluorescence It is a vindication of painting, of matter and color; in some paintings you can almost feel how the artist had to choreograph to paint the canvas. At the same time, it addresses personal issues that the viewer may find themselves challenged by, such as family, love, and the passage of time. One of the works is Epiphany, where a magpie rests on the back of a cow. Florescence, which gives the exhibition its name, are flowers that burst over three figures. Last summer, coinciding with the birth of his son, Pratts moved into a house in Mallorca for two months, and that landscape has entered the paintings, with the tones of dawn and dusk, which serve as a common thread, and also with the themes, as can be seen in the details of I see the sun awaken and the worldThe connection with nature and animals is a new constant in his work, while also connecting with an entire pictorial tradition, even primitivist.

"We don't want him to domesticate his work, we want it to have wings; at this point in his career, that's essential," says Mayoral. "He has an iconography, with color and laughter, that can generate empathy," says the curator, "and it's full of less transparent, deeper layers." So far, he's been shown at the Miró Foundation's Espai 13 and has had work exhibited at MACBA and the Tecla Sala, as well as in group exhibitions in Madrid, Germany, and the United States. He has also delved into sculpture, which he showed at the Liceu. For the gallery owner, we must trust in it as a "great hope for our culture." It's time for the general public to recognize it.