- Venue
- Matthews Yard
- Starts
- Saturday, December 9, 2017
- Ends
- Wednesday, January 31, 2018
- Address
- 1 Matthews Yard, off Surrey Street Croydon CR0 1FF
- Location
- London
- Organiser
- Miguel Sopena
A Tale of Two Cities
Matthews Yard, Croydon, South London
1 Matthews Yard, off Surrey Street, Croydon CR0 1FF, UK
1 December 2017 – 31 January 2018
Miguel Sopena’s second solo exhibition A Tale of Two Cities is now open at Matthews Yard, Croydon. The show brings together drawings and paintings inspired by Miguel’s home town of Valencia, in Eastern Spain, and the Croydon area in South London, where he is based now. These works are not verbatim depictions; Rather, they are daring reimaginings in the tradition of capricci, a bold and personal response to colour, structure and atmosphere, which ventures beyond the physical and which Miguel relates to the work of 20th century artists such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky.
Miguel relates this work to the broader issue of migration, which, as he says, is ‘central to many people in the Croydon area and the whole of London, be they immigrants themselves or descended from migrants […] As a immigrant, moving to a new location can be challenging but it means having access to a whole new world with its own rhythms, textures, and opportunities.’
Miguel is a theoretical physicist but changed direction to train as a figurative painter (at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London). He has recently developed an abstract and semi-abstract strand of work inspired by memory, identity, a response to the immediate environment, and a dialogue with the painting materials themselves.
Miguel’s CV and work can be seen on his website, www.miguelsopenaarts.com. A Tale of Two Cities is open within Matthews Yard opening hours (12pm-10pm Tue-Thurs, 12pm-11pm Fri-Sat, 12pm-6pm Sun, closed Mon, www.matthewsyard.com).
