The HMH Gallery in Port Andratx with collaboration of Limelight International Art agency is showcasig new works by the French painter Nicolas Maray under the title ,,Les Rostros del Tiempo” (The Faces of Time).

For Nicolas Maray, time becomes a vivid and visible resonance of our own lives. It manifests itself in traces of transience. It scratches at our existence, burrows into our bodies, erodes us and our environment. Time is omni- present; it reveals its shadows, its profile, its many faces, thus revealing a significant part of ourselves.

,,My eyes linger on the cracks of a decaying wall, on a rusty iron gate or sheet metal, on an eroded ship hull, on a colorful
construction container torn
apart by wear and marked by human labor. I have stored all these images and their colors in my memory, so I have never experienced the syndrome of the blank canvas, equivalent to the writer’s blank page. Even be- fore I start painting, my memory
presents me with a graphic that I have already seen, which will form the structure of the painting and its associated dominant color scheme.”
So, when we observe his large format canvases, we witness colors shining, surprising us, and evolving into forms that awaken memories within us. We see cracked layers of paint or eroded steel – then again, a deep-sea landscape or the dense
leafy crown of a tree. There’s a rhythm in the construction of these works; they come to life through the addition of layers, tearing, resuming, seeking, allowing to happen, mastering chance, and overlaying until his ,,Faces of Time” are completed.
Time is simultaneously abs- tract from a philosophical and conceptual standpoint, yet so concrete from a sensory
perspective. The perspective one has on it is both objective and subjective, depending on whether one speaks about it or experiences it. I would say that my work concerning time is an abstraction of its reality. When a viewer looks at a painting, they typically perceive it at first glance as, abstract and don’t recognize anything concrete. Depending on their sensitivity, the material and color then challenge them as if the canvas becomes a previously seen image retrieved from memory.”
At that moment, people often say:, This reminds me of… it looks like…I feel like I’m seeing…” and frequently, the impression aligns closely with the theme
with your memories or imagination, you make me into a figurative painter. If not, I re- main an abstract painter, which might seem paradoxical but isn’t a contradiction.

LOS ROSTROS DEL TIEMPO
NICOLAS MARAY
THE FACES OF TIME
Solo Exhibition @
20.08.2023 – 03.09.2023
Port Andratx