
OCT 17 | 10:00 PM

All auctions / Contemporary Art / Lucía Laurent - XL - El Abrazo Óptico


Lucía Lauren (LILI) is a Cuban artist with essentially self-taught plastic training, graduated in Social Communication from the University of Havana. Her relationship with the image began long before she devoted herself professionally to painting. Photography constituted her first creative territory: through it she developed a special sensitivity to composition, visual balance, gesture, and the representation of the human figure. Subsequently, she spent several years exploring the world of tattooing, a decisive stage for understanding the importance that line, silhouette, simplification of forms, and graphic clarity acquire in her current painting. Ultimately, she found in the plastic arts a space of expression much broader. Painting allowed her to unite those previous experiences and transform them into an intimate and recognizable universe, built mainly through acrylic on canvas. Lucía Lauren’s work revolves especially around women, nature, flowers, and animals, with a recurring presence of the cat as the silent companion of her protagonists. These are scenes that rarely seek to narrate extraordinary events. On the contrary, the artist seems interested in small moments of calm: a woman holding her cat, a figure surrounded by flowers, a glass of wine, an imagined garden, or simply a moment of contemplation. Her painting starts from a marked visual synthesis. Lucía eliminates much of the secondary information to preserve only what she considers essential. Serene faces, large areas of color, defined outlines, and flat shapes build images that are immediately legible, yet filled with sensitivity. In her language we find echoes of contemporary illustration and naïve painting, along with decorative references close to Art Deco and Art Nouveau. However, these elements appear reinterpreted from a personal sensitivity—warmer, more everyday, and feminine. One of the most interesting aspects of her work is the use of color. Powdery pinks, terracottas, ochres, mustards, and cream tones coexist with deep blacks, blue-green greens, intense reds, and very clean whites. In some compositions the palette is delicate and almost domestic; in others, the chromatic contrast takes on a clearly graphic intensity. The woman occupies the center of practically her entire pictorial universe. She is not depicted as a heroic or distant character, but from a calm, elegant, introspective femininity. They are figures with serene gazes, slow poses, and restrained gestures. There is glamour, but it is an intimate and silent glamour. Cats play a particularly interesting role. Far from being merely decorative elements, they act as symbols of companionship, independence, tenderness, and emotional shelter. In works where woman and animal embrace, the curves of the human body and the shapes of the cat almost fuse, turning the composition into a representation of affection. Flowers and vegetation fulfill a similar function. They surround the protagonists, appear on their dresses, or blend into the backgrounds until the boundary between figure and nature is blurred, at times. In this way, woman, nature, and the animal world end up forming a single sensibility. In works such as the figure embracing the cat on a red background, Lucía radically reduces the palette to build the image through the contrast between black, white, and red. The stripes on the dress cease to be just a print and become the main compositional resource: they surround both characters and focus the entire scene on the embrace gesture. The result conveys protection, intimacy, and quiet. In other pieces, such as the woman seated beside the cat and the glass of wine, the artist develops a composition closer to contemporary design. The terracotta of the dress dialogues with soft pinks, beiges, and blue-green, creating a sophisticated image without feeling cold. The protagonist does not perform any concrete action; she simply exists within her space. Precisely that absence of drama constitutes a large part of the charm of the work. Thus, Lucía Lauren develops a painting that appears simple but is carefully constructed. Her language does not rely on ostentatious technical virtuosity, but on the ability to reduce a scene until finding its essential emotion. Her universe is feminine, botanical, domestic, and affectionate. It features everyday beauty, the relationship with animals, care, contemplation, and nature as refuge. Her paintings possess a particularly attractive quality: they can seem decorative at first glance, but behind that beauty lies a constant search for harmony, sensitivity, and serenity. In a contemporary landscape where many images seek to grab attention through excess, Lucía Lauren takes the opposite path: she simplifies. And it is precisely in that simplicity that much of the personality of her work resides. Artwork by the artist Lucía Laurent made in the technique Acrylic on high-quality professional canvas. Dimension 90 x 120 cm of painting. Original edition. Shipping will be carried out through United Parcel Service (UPS) for Spain and Europe, and through FedEx for the rest of the world. The work will be sent rolled and protected by several layers of packaging, bubble wrap, and placed in a sturdy tube. Once the work is paid for, three days are required for the packaging process and delivery to the shipping company. The piece will reach you within ten days, depending on the destination country. "This lot contains visualizations made with AI. Please check the original photographs to verify the actual condition of the work." This acrylic on canvas work presents a stylized and bold composition that fuses contemporary figurative art with elements of Op Art and fashion illustration. The painting portrays a woman with pale skin and defined features, a short bob hairstyle, and an elaborate tangle of disordered hair that extends over a textured golden background. Her languid gaze and intensely red lips contrast markedly with the striking pink circular blushes on her cheeks and the deep blue of her eyes. The woman’s figure is interwoven in a tight embrace with a faceless torso, defined by a vibrant and geometric pattern of wavy black stripes and two shades of vibrant blue. This interaction creates a dynamic juxtaposition between the more naturalistic human figure and the abstract, hypnotic pattern, suggesting themes of connection, intimacy, and the fusion of identity with a graphic environment. The use of clean black outlines and saturated colors underscores a pop and decorative aesthetic that enhances the visual intensity of the scene.
Estimate:£508.33
To the auctionView all items fromCatawikiorContemporary Art
Estimate:
£508.33
1996 Australia 1/10 oz Gold Lunar Rat (Series I)
12/06/2017
£351.02
Est: £436.01

OCT 17 | 10:00 PM

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