Barcelona Queer Art Fest

Blur Queer Lines

Parallel exhibitions of two Barcelona-based artists, Adolfo Montalvo and Kevin Booth, will be opening the inaugural
Barcelona Queer Art Fest 2022

Exhibition

Mahi Toi Studio and Gallery is excited to announce the parallel exhibitions of two Barcelona-based artists, Adolfo Montalvo and Kevin Booth, which will be opening the inaugural Barcelona Queer Art Fest 2022 at Mahi Toi.

Blur Queer Lines, as the joint exhibition is titled, will not only showcase the creative work of local talent, but provoke a conversation about what defines queer art, how queer culture is, could be and needs to be reflected through art, and to question how Pride is shown through public and private lives.

The exhibition will open on 16 June and run through to 3 July.

Adolfo Montalvo

Adolfo is a classically educated artist, academic and influenced by the Spanish Masters of the Siglo de Oro (Golden Age), mixed with the wildest street art of Berlin, London, New York and the simplicity of Zen painting. He studied architecture in Madrid where he was born. He has also studied and worked in the UK, the Netherlands, Italy and the USA. Miami is where, for mysterious reasons, his creativity exploded. It took him 44 years to escape from the control of volumes, of light measuring and geometry, before he could release his energy on powerful portraits made up of hard brush strokes, spilled ink and furious collage.

His portraits are a representation of masculinity, confidence, awareness of life and recklessness.

Kevin Booth’s artistic practice includes both visual art and writing. Originally from New Zealand, with a postgraduate BA (Hons) in Comparative Literatures from Auckland University (2008), he has had four plays professionally produced and published five books, both fiction and non-fiction. In 2018, he studied oil painting under Josep Ma Cabané at Barcelona’s Escola Massana, and never looked back. While he continues to write, visual art has become his primary focus in a practice encompassing oils and mixed media: charcoal, coloured inks, acrylic and gold leaf.

Some of the works on show come from his Fight! series – the impetus for these arose from feelings of anger and impotence at the Covid-19 pandemic, which sent most of the world into lockdown. Other works, including those from the After Sex series, portray men in more intimate settings, moments when they are at their most vulnerable.

Kevin Booth

Catalogue

    View the complete catalogue of works included in the exhibition.