ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

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For her first solo exhibition at La Causa galeria, Isabel Mirallas - better known as La Ruman - gathers under the title "Enjundia Costumbrista" a group of works resulting from visual metaphors, symbolisms and allegories that give life to the unique artistic universe of the Almeria-born creator based in Madrid. The artist describes the exhibition as a revision of her baroque universe and an ode to the apotheosis of women in their most dreamlike contexts. Her work is an exercise of contemplative passion, devoid of pretension and "imbued with a high class traditionality", to quote her words. The generous symbolism that overflows from La Ruman's imagery draws from a medley of references and allusions that pay tribute to the castizo* culture and vehemently celebrate the cañí** identity. 

 

The images play with mystery and provocation, weaving scenarios where folkloric force abounds and the stories are insinuated without obviousness, leaving room for the imaginative interpretation of the viewer. The autobiographical references, related to the artist’s environment, are joined by diverse influences, such as flamenco and copla, but also the Cuban son and other genres of Latin origin. These lyrics, full of ardent experiences and feelings, serve as her inspiration and help her to reflect in her painting the dramatic theatricality she finds in the stories that make up her daily life. Far from embracing minimalism, the artist defends the need to sacrifice reality in favor of fantasy, seeking to represent it not on the basis of fiction, since her stories are always inspired by real events, but as a distortion of reality embellished with fantasy. The works thus exhibit a magical realism consisting in presenting the strange as something common and from the everyday, enhancing the subjectivity of the shared experience and alluding to the certainty that, although a story may be questioned in its literalness, the lived-and told-version by its protagonist is as real, or even more so, than the "true" one. 

 

The voice of women and their experiences are at the heart of her work. Quoting Virginia Woolf, and her acclaimed "A Room of One’s Own", La Ruman explains her inspirations: "Women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force. [...] That is the reason why women have internalized the silent memory of the rooms that have marked the rhythm of the different ages of their lives, the passage of time by them." 

 

As the ancient devotees did when offering their gifts to the gods, La Ruman presents their works to the viewer, hoping that he will receive them with the passion, enthusiasm and sense of mystery that underpin and give life to the world she shares with us all today.

 

* castizo: Typical, genuine to the country or place in question (in this case, Spain). 

** cañí: Who is or seems gypsy.