Last summer, Ignasi Monreal (Barcelona, ??1990) presented his Sobremesa exhibition at the Palazzo Monti in Brescia. On the walls hung oil paintings that reproduced plates, sea urchins, gildas, half-finished spaghetti with clams, or the traces of a chocolate dessert. Works that represent the return to painting-painting by an artist known for his digital illustrations for luxury brands such as Dior, Vuitton or Gucci.
In one of the Sobremesa rooms there was a long table, an uncollected dinner full of dirty dishes that, in reality, were hyperrealistic trompe l’oeil. Empty Ruinart champagne bottles, sent for the inauguration, remained as part of the installation. Later, the hundred-year-old Reims winery proposed to Monreal to intervene his second skin, the sustainable second skin that since 2020 protects his bottles, and he decided to take it to his land.
The result, an evolution of his plats bruts, can be seen at ARCO. Eighteen magnum bottles of Ruinart, 10 of his Blanc de Blancs champagne and eight of Rosé, with their second skins hand-painted by Monreal and which will be on sale during the fair. The proceeds will be used to plant new trees in the Ruinart forest, located in the Madrid town of Alalpardo. This initiative, developed with the (R)forest Project association to promote reforestation, began in the 2022 edition of ARCO with the bottles painted for the occasion by the designer Jaime Hayón.
«I raised it as a desktop in the field. I have included pollinating animals, inhabitants of the micro-ecosystems that are introduced into the forests to help with reforestation”, explains Monreal from Rome, where he is finalizing the details of the set design he has designed for La bayadere, the ballet that premieres at the Teatro dell ‘Operates on February 25. A project of great technical difficulty, with hand-painted curtains, which he has carried out together with the artists from the Laboratorio di Scenografia of the Italian Coliseum with his own techniques, today almost in disuse, but which at the time were exported to the most important theaters throughout the world. Europe.
Monreal, who lives between Rome, Madrid and Lisbon, where he settled almost two years ago, is one of the most internationally recognized Spanish creators thanks to his work as a commercial artist. «Until the 20th century, art has always worked like this, commissioned and within parameters established by clients who were then the church or the aristocracy. When I painted the walls of the Gucci palace in Florence, I didn’t see the difference”, he says.
«I feel freer than if I were a gallery artist. I learn from everything I do, which also gives me the necessary freedom to dedicate myself to my personal projects». Exhibitions like Bl00m, his NFT project, which explores the medium with flowers that recreate the madness of tulips in the 17th century and that change every 15 minutes depending on variables such as their market value. “It hasn’t been a commercial success, but it doesn’t matter. It’s not about money, it’s about freedom. The important thing is that the art is honest and timeless.
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