As Miguel Valverde says: “The mask is the spirit´s skin”; in that sense, we all cover up our essence with a suit, a body, with attitudes, with our defining personality and attitudes, with a case. However, there are moments in which we rid ourselves of everything in order to peek out and let our true self be seen, our deity, an open flower, a prickly pear with all of its thorns, a moment of ecstasy where we are our greatest expression, catharsis, a volcano’s explosion, genuine faces, a venting of emotions, adrenaline, a gasp which reminds us that we don’t need to think about breathing in order to keep us alive, its enough being authentic; and it precisely this authenticity one of the characteristics that defines Valverde´s work, who breaks away from the world at the moment of creation and comes and goes, comes back and goes away again, and as a result, delivers unto us a connection with what he sees, his tastes and likings, his relationship with the divine and the mundane, the joy of feeling, the freedom which he transmits to us within his open and precise wing like strokes, brushstrokes that like arms encompass and embrace for a moment the amplified vision of this great contemporary artist for who everything is prone of becoming a source of inspiration, thrusting unto us from the ropes both sides of the same coin: on one side transparent gestures of the spectators and on the other, as a center piece, a face that is hidden behind a veil of “Nopalucho”, which at the same time blends two other aspects that at first sight are not connected, nevertheless, they meet within Miguel´s passions: the desser landscapes and lucha libre.
You are invited to enjoy this exposition with the jubilation and undertone of detachment given by the so called “art of the pancracio”, in addition, with the opportunity of reaching a sublime state of joy while regarding ART, yes capitalized, the ART represented here in the work of my dear friend and colleague who I admire deeply, Miguel Valverde.
Congratulations for sharing with us yet another success.
Violeta Rivera
