The Cádiz-born artist maps out a painted route through the streets, the traditions and the culture of his home city. Fernando Benítez Gabriel (Cádiz, 1973) composes scenes of local life that let the viewer get to know the corners of Cádiz through his canvases. Popular spots, intimate street corners, views from the water's edge or endless panoramas.
The Andalusian city mixes many rhythms, though it keeps its flamenco essence. Benítez Gabriel pays tribute to the great names of the genre, such as Paco de Lucía and Manolo Sanlúcar, in portraits full of contrasts of light. The same contrasts held in the exquisite physicality of his nudes, which reveal his other pursuit, sculpture.
But Cádiz resounds, above all, with the echo of its Carnival. The Cádiz painter puts together his readings of that carnival reality, of the masks, of the chirigotas. And he also builds his own social criticism into painted satires that call out the abuses of political power or the indifference towards what is unlawful.
His canvases travel to Cuba, Montevideo or Morocco. Bringing together in his artwork, just as Cádiz does in its streets, all sorts of accents and so bringing the forms of other cultures closer.
The Andalusian artist resolves his creations with a rich range of colour, evocative of life in Cádiz. He does it with substantial realist brushstrokes that he stamps with his own style, mixing sharp outlines with looser marks.
Benítez Gabriel has followed a self-taught path, taking in his artistic calling from childhood in the studio of his father, the Cádiz sculptor Nando. That influence shows in his output, along with what he took from the Elche master Antonio Torres Brú.
You can find out more about Fernando Benítez Gabriel here.
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