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José Antonio Sorolla Gallén is a painter who was raised and self-trained in a tradition of extraordinary craftsmanship. Although José works from photographs, his paintings do not shock nor react against abstraction like those of the Photorealists; instead, they serve as tableaus that show the artist’s love for his subjects and his unusual attention to light and color. The result of his meticulous painting process is an image that speaks directly to the eye, inviting admission into the depicted environment alongside its own subjects.
José describes his current work as only the beginning of a new period of exploration. For his current work, he uses photography as a visual aid. At times he paints from a spontaneous photograph of a moment he captured, usually portraits of people in everyday situations, such as “readers who fall asleep or empty writers, without any ideas”. At other times he prepares the scene, selecting and arranging an appropriate combination of colors for his composition. Either way, José aims to create paintings that transcend the photograph by instilling emotions in the viewer. The seas that he paints are those that he has known since his youth, and he is deeply interested by the effect of the sea on people. Thus his paintings offer a vicarious experience of the thoughts and moods of ordinary people gazing at the horizon. He wishes his paintings to give the impression of a film frame- as the composition of a film frame may invoke the emotions of a painting, his paintings attempt to convey the tangibility and depth of a passing moment.
José was born in Onda in the province of Castellón, Spain, which is a small town with a historical tradition in ceramics production. His family, composed of craftsmen, potters, and painters, also owned a ceramic workshop and encouraged the development of artistic technique through his youth. Based in Spain, he has exhibited his work extensively worldwide nearly every year since 1983, including France, Russia, Lebanon, and the United States. Although he currently works figuratively, José has an eclectic taste and has worked through different periods in his career, experimenting extensively in various media and styles.
José describes his current work as only the beginning of a new period of exploration. For his current work, he uses photography as a visual aid. At times he paints from a spontaneous photograph of a moment he captured, usually portraits of people in everyday situations, such as “readers who fall asleep or empty writers, without any ideas”. At other times he prepares the scene, selecting and arranging an appropriate combination of colors for his composition. Either way, José aims to create paintings that transcend the photograph by instilling emotions in the viewer. The seas that he paints are those that he has known since his youth, and he is deeply interested by the effect of the sea on people. Thus his paintings offer a vicarious experience of the thoughts and moods of ordinary people gazing at the horizon. He wishes his paintings to give the impression of a film frame- as the composition of a film frame may invoke the emotions of a painting, his paintings attempt to convey the tangibility and depth of a passing moment.
José was born in Onda in the province of Castellón, Spain, which is a small town with a historical tradition in ceramics production. His family, composed of craftsmen, potters, and painters, also owned a ceramic workshop and encouraged the development of artistic technique through his youth. Based in Spain, he has exhibited his work extensively worldwide nearly every year since 1983, including France, Russia, Lebanon, and the United States. Although he currently works figuratively, José has an eclectic taste and has worked through different periods in his career, experimenting extensively in various media and styles.