Rómulo Celdrán: Digital Tenebrism

BBA Gallery is pleased to present "Rómulo Celdrán: Digital Tenebrism", the first solo exhibition of the exceptional Spanish artist in Berlin. With his latest series of hyper-realistic paintings “Digital Tenebrism” (2020-now) Celdrán explores the Baroque tradition. The Tenebrists are known for their dramatic chiaroscuro painting. Deeply impressed by the paintings of the seventeenth century, Celdrán creates scenes inspired by Caravaggio, Ribera and Zurbarán. Instead of candlelight, however, the scenes in Celdrán's paintings are lit only by mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets, which are checked by the figures in the darkness of their domestic surroundings. Where silence pervades the unlit areas, the theatrical darkness in "Digital Tenebrism" leaves room for the viewer's own imagination. In the artist's words, "The darkness was no longer scary for me. It becomes an intimate space for meditation and reflection."

Completing the exhibition are the latest hyper-realistic sculptures from the HI-RES body of works, a series of enlarged household gloves called SOLID. Using 3D computer modelling, HI-RES explores the relationships between the art object, which takes visible reality as a reference point, and the boundaries of veracity between observable reality, art and science. By simulating a household glove, SOLID's verisimilitude erases the Platonic distinction between original and copy.