‍VILLAZAN is pleased to present "THE POWER OF COLOR", a group exhibition featuring new works by internationally acclaimed artists Bibi Lei, Sun-Kyo Park and Wahab Saheed that stand out for the particular use of color and the unique combination of styles through 10 artworks.

Bibi Lei born in 1985 is a Portuguese-Chinese artist based in Tokyo, Japan. She describes herself as a "childlike soul that never grows old." Lei's love of painting and motherhood is manifested through self-taught techniques such as finger painting and untethered brushstrokes. "I paint fast and direct, because I don't think, I just go with the feeling."

Sun-Kyo Park was born in 1990 in Jeonju, South Korea. The characters that Park has created are influenced by the 8-bit video games the artist played during his childhood, and the simple yet harmonious graphic effects found in these games inspired him. Park has also found inspiration in the artworks of the Joseon Dynasty, including Buddhist paintings and King’s portraits that he often encountered in the museum, which he visited during family trips.

Wahab Saheed was born in 1998 in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and major African financial hub situated along the South Atlantic Ocean. Saheed paints portraits of black identities. His portraits of black figures depicted through sharp and speedy gestural mark making in contrast to the planar and almost graphically posteresque composition of the spaces that they inhabit, succeed in strongly emphasizing the physicality and the spirituality that these subjects carry.

For this show Bibi has created 2 echoing pieces that are standing side by side. The two main girls of each painting want to be in the center stage, they are hungry and eager to be the boss. Showing off how big their soul has become. While the rest of the girls are struggling to squeeze into the canvas, the wildly curious eyes, determined expressions, with raw color textures. They have become colorful beasts, competing with each other. The forms and colors dance and expand. In Lei´s words “I would relate my painting style with Fauxism but more cute and naive. Seeing my daughter growing up, I am inspired she wants to be competitive and brave to face her surroundings”. The artist paints with the energy she sees from her daughter and other children. "Colors are my best friends, they will lead me in every painting journey."

Sun-Kyo Park works with the concept of distance in his 5 paintings. It refers to the concept of feeling the 'gray area' that lies between all the black and white in the world, such as the distance between people, the distance between the body and the mind, and the distance between good and evil. The light in the work draws the characters and us in. The artist chose to use red light because it is an impulsive and stimulating image to illustrate the pull of light in a more convincing way. “It's the kind of light that a cat would follow in a frenzy, like a laser light”.

Wahab Saheed begins each of his 3 portraits for this show from quiet observations and immediate connections when choosing a subject, he uses charcoal, a medium imbued with history, prominent in the prehistoric cave paintings, allowing him to capture expressions, inner struggle and the nuance the subjects carry, the artist further makes use of brightly colored pastel and acrylic paint to contrast the dark smudges of the charcoal base, also he uses oil pastels to create a boundary between the sitter and the background. These boundaries, sometimes broken, represent the fragility of human nature, visualizing the innate level of vulnerability that accompanies portrait painting. The duality of the materials is crucial in symbolizing the internal complexes of each sitter and is also emblematic of balance in the final stages.

The exhibition "The Power of Color" honors the use of color through the gaze of three artists who have very different backgrounds but connect brilliantly with their own styles. Bibi, Sun-Kyo and Wahab bring color and light to this exhibition creating a powerful dialogue between the works.

The group exhibition "THE POWER OF COLOR" will run from October 17h through January 12th at VILLAZAN Madrid.