“I think that my style is more connected with my real beginnings, my childhood, and the drawings I was making then. This is why it always felt that this style actually found me and I didn’t find it, and I’m still waiting for it to change. I’m looking to communicate emotions. The feeling of love, magic, or pain, I want to show that second when you feel those emotions. [...] I like people to experience the sensation of experiencing the moment of magic. Being lost, confused, heart beating stronger, I love that effect.”
Executed in 2018, Same Old Story! is a vivid example of Spanish artist Javier Calleja’s signature portraits of wide-eyed boys, emphatic phrases emblazoned across their chests. 2018 was a significant year for the artist, having made his Asia debut the previous year in 2017 at the Aisho/Nanzuka Gallery in Hong Kong with his solo exhibition, Hi. It was after this point that audiences, particularly his Asia-based collectors, began to truly resonate with his work, admiring his playful yet sincere imagery. His striking iconography, bright colours and deceivingly enigmatic slogans command the viewer’s attention, engaging them in the narrative of the work. Calleja evokes a memorable innocence in his works such as Same Old Story!, capturing moments of childhood wonder and joy, and the uninhibited essence of the young. In an interview with curator Sasha Bogojev for Juxtapoz magazine, the artist described: “I like simple things. Simple, but not easy. I always say that I like to find a magic moment” (the artist quoted in Sasha Bogojev, “Javier Calleja; Finding That Magic Moment”, Juxtapoz, online). He achieves this “magic moment” by focusing on the eyes, imbuing them with a sense of realism and fascination, enhancing the child-like innocence of his characters.
Calleja draws on a variety of different sources and movements from art history in his brightly-coloured oeuvre, evoking elements of figuration, abstraction, surrealism, pop, minimalism, and anime. In regards to his singular artistic practice, the artist explained: “...I want to mix everything together. Sometimes it’s not Surrealistic anymore, but absurd. Sometimes I paint the character, and the text on his T-shirt is absolutely absurd. But if you mix something real and absurd, you create something new, and it makes sense, so people can understand” (the artist quoted in Sasha Bogojev, Ibid.). Further, the Spanish artist is inspired by a myriad of artistic influences, admiring Yoshitomo Nara, Philip Guston, Rene Magritte and Alex Katz to name a few. Overall, Calleja creates a unique visual language with his diverse oeuvre of paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculpture, immediately recognisable as the artist’s work.
Same Old Story! is a radiant, impressively-sized painting by Calleja to come to auction. Set against a vibrant background of crimson red that recalls the immersive colour field paintings of American abstract artist Mark Rothko, the central figure gazes out at the viewer, his green eyes standing out against his orange shirt on which “Same Old Story” is written. Calleja’s cartoonish figures have won him a legion of fans around the world, and the artist continues to be honoured with international solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Almine Rech in Shanghai and Galería Rafael Pérez Hernando in Madrid this year.
「我覺得我的風格和自己生活的真正源頭息息相關，像童年時光和當時畫的畫。因此，我總是覺得是這種風格找到了我，而幷不是我找到了它，幷且我還在等待它變化。我希望達成情緒的溝通。愛、神奇或痛苦的感覺，我希望將你們感受到這些情緒的那一刻展現出來。……我想大家去體會到那個神奇時刻的感受。失落、困惑、心跳加重，我愛這種效果。」
《同樣的老故事！》創作于2018年，是西班牙藝術家哈維爾·卡勒加標志性大眼男孩肖像中的典型精彩之作，胸前標記著醒目的短語。2018年對藝術家來説頗具意義，因爲他2017年在香港Aisho/Nanzuka畫廊舉辦了亞洲個人首展「嗨」。自此之後，廣大觀衆、尤其是亞洲藏家，開始真正地和他的作品產生共鳴，愛上他充滿趣味又真情流露的圖像。他圖標式的人像作品如此醒目又色彩鮮艷，再加上謎一樣的語句，深深地吸引了觀者，讓人沉浸在作品的敘述中。《同樣的老故事！》和卡勒加其他作品一樣，喚起了難以忘懷的純真，捕捉了童年的好奇和喜悅之情，以及無拘無束的青春精神。藝術家和策展人薩沙·博戈耶夫在《Juxtapoz》雜誌的訪談中，如此説道：「我喜歡簡單的事物。簡單，但并非容易。我總是說，我想找到那個神奇的時刻。」（引述藝術家，薩沙·博戈耶夫，<哈維爾·卡勒加：尋找那個神奇時刻>,《Juxtapoz》，網上資源）。他在雙眼上下功夫，注入現實感和魅力，加强了角色中孩子般的純真，最終展現了這一「神奇的時刻」。
卡勒加從藝術史的源流和運動中博采衆長，創造出明亮動人的作品，當中不乏具象、抽象、超現實主義、波普、極簡主義和動漫元素。對於自己獨一無二的藝術實踐，他解釋道：「……我想要把一切混合在一起。有時它不再是超現實了，而是荒誕。有時我畫一個角色，他T恤衫上的文字是絕對荒誕的。但如果你把真實的事物和荒誕的事物混合在一起，你就創造了新的事物，變得有意思，那麽大家就明白了」（引述藝術家，薩沙‧博戈耶夫，來源同上）。而且，這位西班牙也受到了衆多藝術的影響，奈良美智、菲利普‧古斯顿、雷內‧馬格利特、亞歷克斯‧卡茨等等都是他仰慕的藝術家。融匯貫通之下，卡勒加以多樣化的繪畫、素描、水彩和雕塑作品創造了獨特的視覺語言，這使觀衆一看到他的作品就能辨認出來。
《同樣的老故事！》是卡勒加亮相拍場的一幅光彩奪目、尺幅巨大的繪畫。鮮艷的猩紅色背景讓人想起美國抽象藝術家馬克‧羅斯科無邊浸染的色域繪畫，襯托出凝視觀者的中心人像，他的綠色眼睛在橘紅色衣服的映襯下格外突出，衣服上寫著「同樣的老故事」。卡勒加的卡通式人像吸引了來自全球各地的粉絲，藝術家再接再厲進行國際性的個展與群展，最近期的就是今年在上海阿爾敏·萊希畫廊和馬德里拉斐爾·佩雷斯·埃爾南多畫廊舉行的展覽。