THE artwork of two acclaimed Argentinean artists Santiago Espechey and Francisco Gustavo Coppoletta was on display from Sunday to Wednesday at the House of Art at Jamjoom Center in Jeddah. It was hosted under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and Information, Abdul Aziz Khoja, and the sponsorship of the Ambassador of Argentina to Saudi Arabia, Enrique Pareja, and inaugurated on Sunday evening. “It is an excellent exhibition as Argentina is the land of art and creativity,” remarked Abubakar Baqader, the deputy minister of culture and information and cultural relations during the inauguration. “We are very proud to have two Argentinean artists who chose to exhibit their talent for the first time in Saudi Arabia.”He added that such exhibitions are the links that enhance Saudi relations with other countries and promote cultural exchange on a peer to peer level. Commenting on the artwork itself, he said, “One is about nature, done in an abstract manner, and the other narrates the story of nature through science: by using satellite images of world deserts. “ Interestingly, the latter was compiled from satellite images and put together to look eerily like an abstract painting. Both artists arrived in Jeddah on the back of a successful exhibition in Riyadh last week at the National Museum, and their next destination is Bahrain. Speaking to the Saudi Gazette, artist Coppoletta confessed that his artwork doesn't have a particular theme, but that he prefers to paint according to his mood and the atmosphere. He also remarked that he enjoys painting things large than life because volume, light and texture take precedence over the actual size of objects. “My artwork looks like photographs but it is actually made by my hands and paintbrush strokes,” explained Coppoletta. “The different strokes of color layer after layer gives them the look of photographs. I use an acrylic background and then paint the layers, shadows and emotions in oil. In Italy, we call this technique famatora, meaning different layers of colors, textures and atmospheres.” Coppoletta also confessed an interest in making films, and on the life of a painter in particular. He was also full of praise for Saudis and their food. “It's amazing over here,” he remarked. “Whatever time we got to look around here, I found that I enjoyed it and people appreciated my work a lot as well.” Santiago Espechey's artwork came across as both creative and innovative with his use of satellite images. “I do ‘satellite art' which is a gift from the Argentine National Space agency CONAE where I was trained in the advanced processing of satellite imagery, and I have been doing this for almost ten years,” he said. “I used to process these images for science and in that daily routine, I discovered the artistic potential of the images and I began to express myself in this neo-figurative language that I now share with you.” In the artwork displayed in this exhibition, he used images of the Argentinean desert, the desert region of Saudi Arabia and the Sahara, and gave them the look of oceans. “The theme is that the ocean is coming back to the desert,” he explained. Espechey has already held exhibitions in the US and in Europe and plans to hold another exhibition in Rome next year with special satellite images of Italy. He promises to come back to the Kingdom with a new theme and new ideas.
