CIAO

Mònica Subidé (1974, Spain) creates dreamlike paintings on linen and paper that incorporate oil paint, pencil, and sometimes minimal collaged motifs. Her compositions are illusory and placid, focusing on abstracted figural and still life scenes. From her muted colour palettes to her unfinished lines and quasi-cubist approach to shading, Subidé paints in a mode that recalls the work of midcentury Expressionists such as Egon Schiele or Ernst Kirchner. But her surfaces cultivate a uniquely distanced, quiet warmth, one located in her figures’ magnetic and secretive faces, and in the limb-like floral arrangements that complement them.

Subide gently rocks us into dreams, speaking with the delicacy of flowers. But at the same time, she has a critical view towards everyday life in the danger of extinction. Portraying giant and threatening flowers reveals that she does not only want to show the beauty of life, but also the fears that it holds for us. In many cases she chooses the special perspective of children.