Work, Rest and Play at Palau de Casavells

James Rielly’s (Wales, 1956) work is characterised by the use of pastel tones and watery strokes,…

creating a sphere of tension and unease that reveal the artist’s intention to insinuate and leave the interpretation of his works open to the viewer. The scenes that appear in his work are tinged with humour and irony, mostly children’s por- traits, based on stories and images culled from newspaper articles, old books, comics or magazines that he keeps for inspiration. He invites visitor to question things like the stages of transition to adulthood and the construction of an individual’s identity.

Those images, together with the artist’s imagination, are the starting point for Rielly’s works, whose characters often convey in their faces gestures of inquiry that evoke a hidden idea, a feeling, an event that cannot be explained or words that cannot be expressed.