Andrea Villalón I The Shelter of Meaning

Villalón's figurative paintings and stained glass works emerge from a highly personal and transformative exploration of identity, representation and self-reflection in the 21st Century. Every painting is considered a self-portrait and is reflective of Villalón's personal experience. While reminiscent of Mexican masters such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo in both her portrayal of the everyday and the symbology of objects, Villalón also utilises her practise as a kind of psychological investigation more akin to how Pedro Reyes use and promotes therapy as an agent for positive and enlightening change

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"I live for the moments when I feel real, aware, present, part of this world and owner of my skin. I've discovered that for me to be able to reach this state of harmony and synchronicity, first I have to know who I am, which I think I do, but whenever I paint, something unexpected and unknown reveals in front of me. It's my subconscious sublimating. It's the inside projecting itself on the outside, it gives me a little glimpse of what's going on with me and it also works as a record of who I am at every age." - Andrea Villalón

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"The images end up being like the results of a blood test, the elements in them are universal symbols I later translate, I am a doctor and not an artist, now I know how to cure myself." - Andrea Villalón

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The paintings in The Shelter of Meaning continue Villalón's practice of working from within, while acknowledging the changeable core of identity we produce at every turn of our lives.  

Registering her existence through imaginary landscapes and the objects that feel most manifest in her perception, her new works serve not only as a personal perspective, but also as documentation of a world constantly in flux. 

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Villalón's production is based on the unseen as much as what is seen, showing a deep awareness of the exercise of sublimation, where her psychological and mental state dictates what needs to come, this pictorial relation between the idea of the inside and the outside combines to produce a very private visual language. Yet, by talking about herself and trying to understand who she is by self-remembering, Villalón also offers herself as a more universal conduit for understanding our interconnectedness and the belief that the necessity for self-healing and change always must start from within. 

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Every self-portrait included in the exhibition feels extremely personal and auto biographical in its origin Villalón is also the founder of the platform @Conchaelectrica, which gives voice to other Latin American female artists and will also play a role in Brigade's upcoming solo exhibition with Italian artist Bianca Menna, who also focuses on the promotion of underserved female artists.

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Villalón is currently also represented by Machete gallery in Mexico City, with upcoming exhibitions in Guadalajara and participation at international art fairs. Her exhibition The Shelter of Meaning with Brigade is Andrea Villalón's first solo exhibition in Europe. Andrea Villalón (b.1995), is from Uruapan, Michoacán, México. She lives and works in London, UK.