Sun shines through art

For Immediate Release:

AMADOR Vallina is a striking character. He smiles a lot, is full of energy and warmth and this comes through in the work he produces. The range of work from prints to sculpture is exciting, considered and unique.

He is an artist who works in Mallorca where perhaps the sun of that small island helps his creativity.

His exhibition at Shetland Arts Trust's Bonhoga Gallery, opening tomorrow, is entitled Roots of Spain and shows 50 pieces, both prints and works on paper. The title suggests his ties with his homeland but also is a play on words for many use natural vegetation in his printing process.

Born in Asturia, in Northern Spain, in 1957 he moved to Germany in 1973 to avoid military service under the Franco regime. There he decided to become a locksmith and in some of his early work his knowledge of steel comes through.

In the beginning Amador painted portraits in washed-out shades of blue-grey-green, the colours of the Spanish north where it often rains, jagged landscapes under a wide sky, the wild Atlantic Ocean - melancholic work telling of homesickness.

In 1996 he returned to painting and this was exclusively abstract. he impresses with the richness of different painting techniques: layer upon layer, built structures on canvas, wood, steel or paper. He combines oil, acrylic and pigments; he experiments with sand, tar, ashes and salt. He paints, scratches, burns, integrates objects he has found which often give the paintings a three-dimensionality bordering on sculptures.

Germany allowed him a large space to paint but he longed for the sunnier Mediterranean and is now lucky enough to work in Soller, a small town in the north-west of Mallorca.

His works have been on show in many solo and group exhibitions throughout Germany and Spain and Bonhoga is his first UK showing. Should you wish to find out more about Amador Vallina visit his website at www.amador.de.

Friday 4 March until 13 Abril 2003

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The Bonhoga Gallery
Mary Smith
Visual Arts Co-ordinator
Weisdale Mill
Weisdale
Shetland
ZE2 9LW

Tel. 01595 830400
Fax 01595 830444

bonhoga-gallery@shetland-arts-trust.co.uk

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