Martn La Spina or the maker of butterflies paradox

It wouldnt be proper to approach Martn La Spinas art work without contemplating his deep and permanent search for universality within existence, without taking into account how he seeks for everyday spirituality. He creates worlds that are sunk under a constant magma, guided by his own problem with eternity. These worlds come from an indefinite and wombish substance where all the beings can drink from it mixing their own essence with a still movement that faces the same light that gave them birth. It is the same light that makes colour possible as a raw material for painting. A humble homage to the creator thanks to the timeless power of image. A formal and conceptual spiral leads him relentlessly towards the idea of time as a continuum where the review of the great western classic painters. It is a licit review of the classics if we consider them as universal icons of images, taking possession of them as a cultural shape. He takes from Hieronymus Bosch his Dantesque sense of the millennium, from Velzquez the space abstraction, from Michelangelo the strength of contortion, from Leonardo the mystery of human face, from Ingres the ascetic erotism, from Rafael, the green and pink colours, from Chagall the passion for red colour and blue brightness; and the double image of Dal: his love for mass culture and the analogy of surrealism. La Spina takes again to the path of figurative tradition and the material knowledge that western painting has lost through different vanguards. His purpose is to recover the Platonic idea of art as a way of seeking universality from individuality. An irreverently respectful approach to the classics that runs away from conventionalism but at the same time, uses conventional images: this is the apparent paradox of someone that transforms nomadism into a steady way of approach to the world. It is also the maker of butterflies that they will be dead the following day. The balance of chaos, the magic of art as a way of lasting forever.

The balance of chaos, the magic of art as a way of lasting forever.

Ada Navarro Barba Art historian for the University of Barcelona

Martn La Spina
He was born in La Plata, Argentina, in 1973. He was graduated as a Professor and Bachelor of Fine Arts (painting orientation) in the Fine Art College (National University of La Plata) with a distinction for his high qualifications. He has participated in many exhibitions, either single or collective. He was also specially invited, in Painting, Drawing and Art in Glass Saloons from the year 1989 until now. He received many rewards and prizes for his artistic work. Since 1990 he has performed his own individual exhibitions. During 2002 it was in the city of Barcelona, Spain, where he exposed his paintings. In 2003 he studied scenography in the Superior Institute of Art of the Colon Theatre, in Buenos Aires. In 2005 new exhibitions were performed in Barcelona. It is worth mentioned Classicism and Modernity, in Art Bubble-Rubi Gallery. In 2006 his art work Meninas under metamorposis was published by the Prado National Museum as part of the activities related with Picasso's year. He made illustrations for the ophidian Buenos Aires Guide (2000) and with his painting He will cover you with His shadow was the official Christmas Stamp for the Argentinian Mail. He is a teacher of mural art and painting in the Fine Art College, University of La Plata, from 1996. As a stained-glass artist he was a member of the course New Applicated Techniques for the contemporary glass, with a scholar-ship from the Catalunya Government. At the moment he is a teacher for the Cathedral Superior Institute of Stained Glass Window, in La Plata.