"Sometimes, you are painting, and your mind, your emotions, are all in the painting. This is the moment when you can find something new. It’s an emotional moment." 
— Javier Calleja 

 

Summoning feelings of warmth and love, the mother and child image has recurringly been explored throughout the history of art as a symbolic motif of empowerment and maternal protection. Instantly recognisable as an exceptional work by Spanish artist Javier Calleja, You Me is a compelling interpretation of this universal theme. First unveiled in London at the Dorothy Circus Gallery during their 2019 exhibition titled Mother & Child, the endearing canvas depicts two wide-eyed, macrocephalic characters reaching out towards each other’s embrace.

  

 

 

Whilst the mother looks onwards, however, the boy’s eyes are cast aside, as if wondering of the adventurous possibilities beyond the cocoon of this maternal embrace. Inscribed across the taller figure’s top is the word ‘You’ and the small subject’s baby blue shirt the word ‘Me, providing a direct link to the work’s title and a hint at the child being a self-portrait of Calleja himself.

 

The Importance of the Mother and Child Motif  

Mastering the Balance

 

Lending to the universal appeal of kawaii, both characters don a nose and mouth so minutely sized to be barely functional. Starkly contrasting this, however, are their gleaming emerald green eyes which are so large and detailed in their articulation, they immediately stand out against the sandy wash behind. When questioned on his process behind mastering this balance, Calleja has explained, ‘I can paint very realistically, but also, I don't want to see myself doing realistic paintings in the future. Because maybe that is not painting anymore, something like a photograph, a representation. For example, Mark Rothko. His work is also in my paintings. Very flat paintings, not many elements. So I want to keep this moment that one part of the painting is well-rendered or finished, and other is very expressive or casual.’ ⁱ

 

 

 

 

Famously coined as ‘windows to the soul’, eyes are a point of emotive access carrying the weight of genuine human experience. And yet, in You Me the eyes bulge from an otherwise cartoonish presentation that only works to add an uncanny sense of playful irony to the overall scene. Communicating on two registers, it is exactly within this tension between the real and fantastical that Calleja creates a moment of magic. 

  

“I think there is something really important in their eyes, and it’s with only two drops, white colour, and the shadows. So you get the sensation of real.” 
— Javier Calleja 

 

Calleja’s works appear to situate themselves as a rebuttal against the rise of the anti-cute in popular culture, recognisable in the form of horror movies like Chucky where children and dolls become hosts of tormented spirits, or cartoons such as The Simpsons which reveal the dysfunction of the nuclear household. Basing his adorably mischievous characters off himself, Calleja instead spreads pleasantry and delight, traits that are especially valuable amidst our time of increasing chaos and uncertainty. 

 

Adamantly rejecting the expectation to over-conceptualise and theorise his work, Calleja explains quite simply, ‘every character is like my son. At the end of my life, I might have thousands of children’.ⁱⁱ The viewer is reminded of one of the most basic drives behind the creation of art – posterity. As such, in their simplicity Calleja allows for the viewer to project their own interpretations onto his work, encouraging viewers to seek identification and solace within his protagonists’ pooling gazes. 

  

An Optimistic Universe

 

One of the first galleries to represent Calleja was Galerie Zink, whom were also amongst the first to represent renowned Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. In fact, with notable shared similarities in both concept and aesthetic, the work of Calleja often draws comparisons to that of his contemporary. However, whereas both artists explore the motif of childhood, Calleja distinguishes his work with a defiant sense of optimism.

  

Nara paints his child protagonists as solitary within his visual world. Both tender and violent, and adorable and perverse – in their sneering, half-lidded eyes one encounters a curious depth of cynical emotion that juxtaposes their naive wonder. In contrast, Calleja appears to reverse this archetype of the complex child in his celebrated oeuvre, instead returning the infant to a place of greater comfort and familiarity. Planted in indeterminate spaces that are flat in bright colour, Calleja’s children are yet to be totally defiled by adult preoccupations. As exemplified by the present work, they still teeter on the edge of adolescence, evoking a playful humour and sense of optimism that resonates on a universal level.

  

 

“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.” 
— Javier Calleja  

 

Collector’s Digest

 

Testament to his position as a major figure within the world of contemporary art, Calleja has presented exhibitons in a wide number of institutions worldwide. Notable solo exhibitons of Calleja include at Almine Rech in Shanghai (21 May – 26 June 2021); Rafael Pérez Hernando Arte Contemporáneo in Madrid (25 February – 24 April 2021); Bill Brady in Miami (2020); AISHONANZUKA in Hong Kong (2019, 2017); Dio Horia in Athens (2019); and Galerie Zink in the German city of Waldkirchen (2019, 2018). 

 

Works by Calleja now form part of influential public collections including the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Burgos, Marset Collection, and Unicaja Collection, amongst others.

 

 

 

ⁱ Javier Calleja, quoted on Sasha Bogojev, Javier Calleja: Finding That Magic Moment, Juxtapoz, 2019, online

ⁱⁱ Javier Calleja, quoted on Avantarte, online