To date Enrique Gavilanes has produced landscape paintings that explore the subject of spirituality. Gavilanes’ new work focuses specifically on the sense of spirituality we gain from the knowledge of our heritage. Irrespective of the culture we each come from, we all need a sense, which has been fashioned by our ancestry, of who we are. Hence ancestry and heritage are universal themes. With the Ancestors series of artworks Gavilanes echoes that universal theme of heritage, which we all hold dear as individuals.

Using teabags, a contemporary but globally recognised item, Gavilanes alludes to the universality of the subject of heritage and ancestry. It takes a mass of individual tealeaves blended in one teabag to give a cup of tea its richness and flavour. Likewise it takes people from a spectrum of cultures and heritages to give our communities its richness and diversity. Gavilanes’ Ancestors series is even more intriguing with the knowledge that no fresh teabags were harmed in the making this art.

Gavilanes’ Ancestors series in the group exhibition  Wide Open Spaces. Wide Open Spaces is on at the Espacio Gallery from Thursday 17 January 2013. The Espacio Gallery is smack bang in between Bethnal Green station on the Central line and Shoreditch High Street on the Overground line, at 159 Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 7DG.

By Depo Olukotun

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