Exhibitions
Marria Pratts: florescence
A reflection on the life process and memory, at the Mayoral gallery.
Until July 19, the Mayoral Gallery in Barcelona is exhibiting the last painting by Marria Pratts (Barcelona, 1988). The title of the exhibition, Florescence, refers to the maturation process of trees and plants, which is manifested with the appearance of flowers. This flowering period marks the transition from a vegetative stage to a reproductive stage, and therefore the exhibition aims to be a reflection of this vital process: a moment of lactation and openness to the world that reflects this latency in Pratts' painting.
It should be remembered that last summer her son was born, and Marria decided to settle for two months in a manor house in Son Negre (Mallorca). The experiences she had during this time and her moments of observation of the forms of life present around the house were translated into a series of sketches and notes made in various notebooks. These drawings have been the basis for the paintings that make up this exhibition. Within the context of the exhibition, the notion of florescence refers to the consistency of memory and the mechanisms that make memories emerge. A few months ago Pratts recovered and digitized several family films that she watched for the first time while working on the works in the exhibition. Among these films are family videos and film experiments made by her mother, such as the one included in the exhibition.
In the paintings of this series, cobalt blue, gray, yellow or orange-red predominate, as is the example of the work Veig el sol despertar i el món caminar (2025). Another outstanding work is Vaca i Garsa. Epifania a Son Negre (2025) or El Teu Somriure (2025), in which the presence of animals stands out. According to Pratts: “Birth and death are universal events, but they are experienced privately. These paintings are my tools for thinking about and confronting these events. Love, melancholy or longing are ideas that come together in Florescència. I understand these three states as engines of transformation”.
For his part, art critic Marc Navarro writes: “The works brought together in this exhibition seem determined to reestablish the balance between presences and absences, between the luminosity of the day and the drowsiness of the night. If vitality and exuberance are the traits that characterize Pratts' work, then this exhibition is an invitation to celebrate life, with everything: with its repulsive force and its fleeting condition.”
Marria Pratts was educated at the Escola Massana in Barcelona and since 2015 has held solo exhibitions in Barcelona, Madrid, Budapest, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and London. He has also participated in group exhibitions at the Can Art Ibiza fair, in Miami, Los Angeles, Vitoria, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris and many other cities.
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