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Dino Valls and the anatomy of Metaphysical

The unsuspected viewer standing for the first time in front a Dino Valls' work is going to experience an unprecedented feeling which not only exceeds the limits of mere aesthetic pleasure, something more or less expected from a work of art, but also manages to completely reestablish the way reality had been understood until then. In essence, Dino Valls' painting constitutes a different way of seeing, a new interpretation of things and situations usually considered as self proven or given. The viewer is under the impression that the painting surface in front of him evolves to a parallel universe in which he is engulfed, overruling the dimension of time and space which used to seem familiar. turned from a means Nevertheless, nothing is how it seems in Dino Valls' world and our senses are

of better conceiving and comprehending the world around us into instruments of reinvention. This is utterly understandable, since for the Spanish artist reality is not, neither will it ever be a whole and, thus, our desire to acquire total control over it is nothing else than a mere caprice, an illogical demand of rationalism which is nothing more but a sad remnant of a way of thinking which today appears obsolete. In our effort to classify Valls' work based on this kind of criteria, there is no way of avoiding finding ourselves faced to an impasse, which in essence occurs due to the futility of a whole system which postmodernist theories have discredited a long time ago though it keeps dominating the way in which most people has been taught to appreciate works of art. Nevertheless, where does his painting really belong? What is its dominating feature? Realism or surrealism? In what way is he related to Early Flemish painters and tradition? Is he a truly contemporary painting and in what sense? Is he authentic or he is just another unimaginative painter who copies the great masters by reproducing in vain empty and out of date aesthetic forms? I think that Dino Valls work itself constitutes the most eloquent answer to all these questions. Regardless words, aesthetic terms and similar fruitless attempts to verbally interpret the nature of his art, Dino Valls works possess the artistic autonomy and visual dynamism needed for directly accessing the viewer stimulating his interest. Full of metaphysical power and expressive exactitude, his painting has managed to modernize concepts and characteristics that seemed displaced from the visual vocabulary of contemporary painting trends attempting to completely abolish figurative painting and every link to the past. Thus, in the context of postmodernism and the wider climate it has established as far as contemporary painting is concerned, Dino Valls makes a suggestion which stands out for its intellectual power and technical expertise. He manages to reinvent realism by demolishing completely the very sense of reality and by revealing the subjectivity of its fragments. Time is no longer linear and narrative becomes personal and encoded. In the same sense, his work

could also be considered equally surrealistic. Its intellectual depth and profound symbolism urges us to regress to the Freudian worlds of dreams and the depths of the subconscious in order to gain access to its hidden meanings. Each image, each painting is a code the viewer has to break using his intellect and imagination, taking him into a journey of mystery, psychological tension and metaphysic search. It is a challenge. It is like a fascinating maze with a Siren sitting at its doors calling us with her song to a challenging journey of self consciousness or self destruction.

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