Postcards From Nowhere

La Fiambrera presents new works by Álvaro P-FF, his sixth solo exhibition at the gallery. He takes a sentimental look back through his travel notebooks to present colourful snapshots of some of the many places he’s visited over the five continents and what happened to him in those locations.

The 30 silkscreen prints combine in his personal style, all his trademark interests: music, skateboarding and the travel itself. These are his great passions that feature in all of his art. While in some examples, certain aspects take centre stage. This travel is not so much about tourism but rather as movement, activity and attitude as a path through the artist’s cultural and personal experience. This is no travel exhibit, it’s a very personal record of what the artist has brought back home in his backpack. This sixth show is episodic. It could actually be part of a larger exhibition that encompasses all his work. Álvaro’s artwork continues to compile experiences and add postcards that he occasionally “sends” us, from nowhere.

His grandmother used to compare him to a lizard’s tail when he was little. No one could keep him still and he’s still the same. Whatever the future holds, he won’t be caught sitting around waiting. Álvaro sets out to learn where his steps take him and adventures can take place outside his house or in the jungle of Paraguay, doing the Camino de Santiago on a child’s bicycle, doing Namibia in a 4 x 4. He might swim with sharks in Belize or enjoy any street food stand wherever he finds himself and wherever he is, music is a constant companion.

Aware as anyone of our fleeting time of life, the artist reminds us time and again that life must be lived and the world explored. This was his message in his previous show, Memento Mori and he continues to encourage us to put down the remote control, throw off the blanket and get outside.

If each “postcard” he sends from nowhere and everywhere could talk, they’d tell us what the places sound like. What they smelled like. What they tasted like. They feature those people he met there and what took place. Since they don’t speak, it’s up to the viewer to let their imagination run wild, to be carried away by the evocative nature of these typically Alvarian landscapes.