FASIM en Montana Gallery (Barcelona)

FASIM returns to the city of his birth and growth as a writer 25 years ago, with his latest series of work which coincides with the seventh anniversary of MONTANA GALLERY space.

I WAS HERE! is the result of a series of work done in various formats, produced exclusively for its presentation in Barcelona. Created using a variety of paint and techniques, and canvas collages, they have come to represent imaginary portraits of personal friends, both present and absent, of the artist. Minor characters, self-portraits, and grotesque paintings groups of figures, this is a wild return to color and characters.

"I WAS HERE!" in graffiti jargon means "I have been here and left my sign of having existed". The same thing happens with painting. The paintings present today are those into which the painters put their essence, their resolution, and their debris, in a moment of earthly existence. This need to leave a trace of our lives, to create colossal pyramids, write our names in rock, in fresh cement, on a tombstone, or scratch marks with keys, or tag with a felt-tip pen or with fresh paint on canvas, is something innate in all of us. All of these are signs of existence which highlight this human impulse to leave something after our transition to an unknown and inevitable afterlife. There is great poetry in such gestures.

In this exposition, we will all see that, after 100 years, only the paintings remain. It's through these that the hollow eyes of the painter may see us. This quest of leaving a physical piece of us is how we..."play a trick on time, and wink at death and eternity!" (Fasim)

"Fasim for me is the Master of masters. Father of graffiti in Barcelona.
One of the pioneers who took graffiti to painting." Sixeart

"Fasim’s art can be summed up in one word: VITALITY!" Suso33

Fasim I WAS HERE! (Portraits and Caprices)

Solo exhibition from April 8th to May 16th 2011.

MONTANA GALLERY c/Comerç, 608003 Barcelona

www.montanagallerybarcelona.com