Impulse By Lita Cabellut

The concept of beauty is a burdened one. We are living in a society that fears its adoration in contemporary art, yet intimidates its women into accepting it as their highest value. We have degraded it in mass media and the celebrity yet revere it above all other qualities of life. Beauty is a double-edged sword – an instrument of seduction and inaccessibility burdened with an overwhelming distrust in the simple sensation of pleasure.

With these dichotomies in mind, Opera Gallery is excited to present Impulse, the newest series by veteran artist Lita Cabellut to be exhibited in conjunction with Frieze Art Fair 2015. By deconstructing traditional concepts associated with beauty and its relationship to violence, Cabellut examines our inherent impulse towards these two kindred sensations and the clash between society’s banishment and expectation of the beautiful.

Born in 1961 to a Gipsy family in Barcelona, Lita Cabellut is a prolific contemporary portraitist. Inspired by the ubiquitous fresco paintings in her hometown, Cabellut spent four years in classical training and held her first exhibition at the Town Hall of Masnou, Barcelona at the age of seventeen. At 19 she left her native Spain to study at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, Netherlands, which is where she remains today to live and work.

Over the years, Cabellut has developed a unique technique that yields an inimitable quality and texture to her work. Her paintings have been exhibited in numerous museums worldwide, including the Netherlands Manifesta Maastricht; Seoul Arts Center; Contemporary Art Museum in Sicily and CSMVS Mumbai, among many others.