Opera Gallery London is delighted to announce its move from their flagship gallery at 134 New Bond Street to brand new, bigger and better space on 65-66 New Bond Street which will open in 2023. They will be opening an exciting new pop-up gallery located in Burlington Arcade whilst work is undertaken on the new space. The first exhibition at Opera Gallery’s pop-up is Fur & Feathers by renowned Spanish multidisciplinary artist Lita Cabellut, from 10 November 2022.
The new gallery will be situated in a graceful Queen Anne-style townhouse spanning over 600 sqm of exhibition space on three levels, displaying original features including arched sash windows. Located at the crossroads of bustling New Bond Street and Brook Street, the gallery will offer a larger space to experience art and easier access to visitors.
In the heart of London, just a stone’s throw away from the Royal Academy, Opera Gallery’s pop-up in Burlington Arcade will host a series of exhibitions starting with Fur & Feathers by Lita Cabellut. It will be the artist’s fourth exhibition at Opera Gallery London and will focus on the surface of the skin, something the artist has been exploring for the past 28 years. Cabellut is fascinated by the skin, from which we perceive all feelings, and how it is exposed to the outside, to light, darkness, pain and pleasure. As she explores the material structure of skin through the surface of her works, she delves into a deeper understanding of how animals have the ability to shed their coat every year and adapt. Cabellut uses animals in her works in order to bring the viewer closer to what the human being has had to learn from their own birth.
Cabellut grew up as a street child in Barcelona until she was discovered by a prominent Catalan family who adopted her in her early teens. During this time she was introduced to the Spanish masters at the Prado Museum, where she discovered the works of Velazquez, Goya and Frans Hals who continue to influence her practice to this day. Surrounded by the abundance of fresco paintings in Barcelona, Cabellut developed a signature technique that captured the volatile characters and scenes of her hometown.
Celebrated for her impressive large-scale paintings that capture their subjects in the fury of a moment, Cabellut is a master of colour and style. Her unique practice uses an ensemble of traditional fresco techniques mixed with modern applications of oil paint, as a result of more than ten years of research that create an inimitable quality and texture to her work. The subject of her work is most of all the human condition with its alternating current of emotions and moods: her painting, of characters and gestures, of representations and the invincible tremor of the imagination. Each painting attempts to capture the raw essence of the subject. Alongside everyday people that inspire her, past subjects include a diverse range of public figures such as Frida Kahlo, Coco Chanel, Sigmund Freud, Billie Holiday and Marie Curie.
Lita Cabellut comments: “This exhibition – Fur & Feathers – began 28 years ago choosing the material that would give me the muscle and skin of what I wanted to represent. For many years this material was made up of scars and cracks and, over time, I began to get to the surface of the skin, to what makes us so vulnerable, to what society makes us to be, to what our genetic heritage gives us to develop. I have used animals in ‘Fur & Feathers’, to bring us closer to what the human being has had to learn from his own birth. Consider, protect, take care of, coexist with other species.”
