"When I am creating, I have never hesitated to rearrange colors. Although this may sound unscientific, I think it's what people call 'innate intuition.' In recent years, I have become obsessed with using colors in my work, always wanting to use all colors at once. But at the same time, I have an internal desire to restrain myself from the fanaticism of color usage and find a balance during the process. " - Xevi Solà
From Dual Pathology to The Euphoria
If Xevi Solà Serra's exhibition "Dual Pathology" in Taichung two years ago was a slight tremor before the spirit entered extreme joy, nervousness and the burst of uncontrolled behavior, then "The Euphoria" is the extreme joy that has suddenly surged. The exaggerated brushstrokes and even more intense colors in this exhibition bring out the spiritual essence of painting, and it seems like the creator is facing a spiritual crisis when painting. The figures in the paintings have completely fallen into their own world - with colorful and bizarre makeup, a lack of blood color, and various strange behaviors that appear calm, revealing the most expressive side of human emotions. This extreme behavior surpasses the audience's senses. "The Euphoria" is called "euphoria" because it suddenly rises like a climax, like a temperature gauge reaching its critical point, and this extreme joy is a true sensory liberation.
"The Odd Man" is a representative work of early American modernist novels, first published by Sherwood Anderson in 1919, which portrays characters in a small town such as a pastor, a female store clerk, a male teacher, and a devout businessman. In the work, "The Odd Man" is described as having bizarre behavior or steadfastly holding abnormal beliefs, which are seen as incredible and strange by ordinary people and are considered to be odd.
"I came to this calm place, and there was another person here." - Sherwood Anderson, "Winesburg, Ohio"
The characters in Xevi Solà's work are like "The Odd Man," with a passionate emptiness that goes deep into the spiritual level of "weirdness." This energy comes from his work as a photographer and nurse in the psychiatric department of Santa Catarina Hospital. When he became a creator, Xevi Solà created a harmonious aspect between mental illness and the ordinary world - disorderly, flamboyant, and bizarre behavior embedded in everyday scenes. This seemingly direct creative action carries a hint of care, as if reminding us that there are always a few odd people around us who are direct, unpretentious, and truly themselves; and perhaps this kind of oddness also lurks in the nerves of each of us. Xevi Solà's work is like a deliverer of the world of mental illness, making us ponder whether the rational shell is clearly distinguishable and what the boundary between illness and normality is.
