Jaime Hayon’s solo exhibition at L21 Barcelona could be defined as an immersive experience. On this walk through Hayon’s creative universe, the viewer can discover several rooms that have been personalized to include a wide variety of works, colors and materials that shape the artist’s imagination. The body of paintings and sculptures functions as a set without hierarchies, which appeals to our sense of sight and touch due to the diversity of textures. The gallery is transformed into a Hayonesque space so that we can connect directly with the beauty that surrounds us, discover figures from another world and let ourselves be carried away by the softness and elegance of the shapes and colors.

Hayon moves between design and art fluidly and without prejudice. His gaze is open, observant. The characters we meet on this journey also emanate these qualities: they invite us to avoid judgement, to observe their curious essence between nature, matter, and humanity. Vases with faces, bird-objects or bird-humans, these hybrid and metamorphic characters are part of a coherent whole that transports us beyond reason. The artist seeks to connect the imaginary world with the real one, since the subjects of his works are born precisely from this mixture between what he observes outside and what happens in his own fantasy.

“Form follows painting” also explores the association between two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality, extracting objects from the paintings and using elaborate techniques such as Venetian blown glass or Valencian terracotta to bring them to life. At a pictorial level, we can observe a color palette characteristic of the artist, who has focused for this project on taking the functionality of design towards the freedom of non-functionality. As the title of this exhibition describes in a nod to architect Louis Sullivan’s famous phrase, here form follows painting, not function.

But the basis of everything, the essence of what we see in this exhibition, is found in the act of playing. Jung said: “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity.”[1]. It is this ability or even attitude that the artist cultivates and chooses as life’s driving force. Entering Hayon’s world is a playful act that allows us to discover new associations and open the range of possibilities to the maximum.

Florence Rodenstein

[1] JUNG, Carl Gustav. Quoted in: Purrington, M. 2020. https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2020/11/09/carl-jung-the-dynamic-principle-of-fantasy-is-play-2/