Benveniste Contemporary is pleased to present our first colaboration with Fuentesal Arenillas (Huelva, 1986 y Cádiz, 1989) titled A primeros de mayo, a series of original etchings, drypoints and photogravure printed and published by Benveniste Contemporary and co-produced with the artists.

Unfortunately, printmaking is not usually a part of the discovery of emerging artists.This condition has to do in large part with the economic circumstances of this medium, whose production costs easily equal, or sometimes even exceed, the value of the final results. We are therefore very often obliged to search for established artists with a wide itinerary with whom the value between the single and the multiple work disperses and softens the apparently never-ending and seemingly inevitable fetishist discussion about serial art. Never the less, occasionally we come across artists whose work stand out, both because of their originality and visual impact as well as their sheer talent, which fortunately pushes us to forget all about the established guidelines in order to get down to work and immediately produce new pieces with them.

Having published a 3-print portfolio with Fuentesal Arenillas last year 2021 for The Print Subscribers Club, (a biannual publication initiated in 1999 which aim to difuse the work of both established and emergent contemporary artists), the results were so well received by our members that it inmediately seemed evident to continue our colaboration, adding to these pieces a larger group of work, all of which we are very happy to present in our showroom this coming Saturday 12 of February, 2022.

Julia Fuentesal and Pablo M. Arenillas studied at the University of Fine Arts in Seville. They have lived and worked in London, Berlin and Madrid, where they currently reside. Their work explores the mischievous dimensions of artistic practice, with pieces that intersect autobiographical aspects with formal resources such as the double figure and repetition. In their work processes, wood has a privileged place, turning toward the trade as a reference. They have proposed everything between games with small pieces, to large panels, recovered beams, warm floors, sculptures or spaces, testing and finding stimulated forms for the gaze and the body likewise.