Simile: Life as a Canvas. VE Contemp

To paint is to observe, interpret, and transform—and when artists turn to
simile, they seek comparisons that make the intangible visible. A simile in
painting, whether explicit or suggested, allows life itself to be represented as
if it were something else: a journey, a storm, a garden, a game, our
struggles, animals, lived experiences, and fantasies. These comparisons add
emotional and philosophical layers that go beyond the image.

Let us imagine life painted as a winding road that disappears into the mist:
each curve, a decision; each shadow, a memory. Or as a fragile vessel adrift
on turbulent waters. In these similes, the canvas ceases to be mere surface
and becomes metaphor. Color, texture, and space do what words cannot:
they suggest the unspeakable.

Throughout the history of art, painters have turned to simile not only to
beautify, but to deepen meaning. In Romanticism, nature was often painted
like the human spirit—wild, sublime, unpredictable. In abstract or
expressionist works, life may appear as an explosion of color, chaotic and
luminous. In modern and contemporary art, similes challenge viewers to
look inward: life as a mask, as a labyrinth, as a stage.

Simile in painting reminds us that life cannot always be portrayed directly. It
must be suggested, evoked, approached obliquely. And in that poetic detour,
we often see it more clearly: life, like art itself, is full of echoes, illusions, and
unexpected truths.

Lucía Ares, Lara Padilla, Myriam Quiel, Dimitri Vojnov, Ella Mello, Eduardo
Alcántara, and José Vívenes come together in this exhibition with their
unique pictorial resources—painting or sculpture—bringing us closer to our
own interpretation of simile in art.