The Fashion Plate Magazine

The Palacete del Embarcadero in Santander, Spain hosts Cantabrian artist Okuda San Miguel in a solo exhibition titled Palace of the holy animals. The installations of large and small scale on public display inside and outside the port space are curated as an homage to the roots of artist. Okuda began as a graffiti artist in Santander, his hometown, and over the years his work has evolved into a new and unique style critics are calling Pop Surrealism.

The Madrid based artist moved there in 2000 to complete his Bachelors of Fine Arts from Complutense University of Madrid. But before he relocated to begin his studies his colorful art works were already scattered about Santander on abandoned buildings and factories as graffiti.

His first works combined geometric structures and multi-colored prints with gray bodies and organic forms in pieced together abstract fashion. The pure color and essence of animation in his work is reminiscent of the original urban street artists from the United States in the 1980s.

In his new solo exhibition, Palace of the holy animals, multicolored geometric architectures merge with organic forms including bodies without gender identity and animals without heads combined to create conflicting symbols that incite reflection and imply a deeper spiritual mean.

The works raise contradictions about existentialism, the universe, the infinite, the meaning of life, the false freedom of capitalism, and show a clear conflict between modernity and our roots; in short, between the human being and themselves.

The installation can be seen in the Palacete del Embarcadero of Santander now until January 7, 2018.