Juan de la Rica (Bilbao, 1979) is a Spanish painter based in Bilbao who presents us with an imaginary far from any novelty but that continues to surprise and absorb us with each representation. Close to the sphere of pop artists such as Alex Katz or David Hockney, Juan de la Rica's pictorial work appears to us as a breath of fresh air, dense and superficial at the same time. The protagonists of his paintings -whether humans, animals, gods or landscapes- are covered with a deep depth, accentuated by the use of color and the cleanliness of the drawing. However, this introspection is combined with the superficial halo of pop art and a fine irony present in his work.
The marked melancholy of his works is also given by the play of light and shadow, which far from seeking realism, is the result of his intuition in painting. The contradiction continues, because despite his complex opinion about painting, he does not dispense with irony in his figures.