Exhibitions — mariayelletisch

The exhibition's title —”Safe Haven”— refers to a special place: a small cabin in Asturias where Maria spends extended periods with her family. This secluded, modest house, filled with flowers and surrounded by greenery near the river, serves as a safe haven for her—a source of deep happiness and introspection.

We could say the cabin and its valley are the main characters of this exhibition. During her frequent stays, Maria has absorbed the essence of its nights, green fields, and hydrangeas, making these landscapes a part of herself, integral to her identity and growth. These deeply rooted experiences, cultivated over time in her mind and body, have now found an outlet in this project. In “Safe Haven”, these significant memories blend seamlessly with her other great strength: the language of painting and the power of visual expression. Each piece in the exhibition recreates this place—its imprint, its unique emotions—manifested through her swift brushstrokes and refined visual prism. In Maria’s words, each work can be thought of as a “color chart” to this cabin and its landscapes, as though painting could preserve, hold onto, or protect a place over time.

The exhibition offers a visual experience that immerses visitors in the Asturian setting, using colors that capture the local atmosphere. The soft light and ambient humidity filter through the paintings, enhancing the organic character of the cabin and its surroundings—a refuge where aesthetic perfection coexists with the inevitable presence of the unexpected and the imperfect.

In a way, each painting by Maria serves as two works at once: abstract in style and general in theme (landscape, perhaps), while also deeply infused with memories, feelings, and profoundly subjective resonances. These factors lend each piece a private, intimate, and almost untranslatable character. The concept of comfort operates as a pivotal point, a meeting place for seemingly opposing concepts like natural versus technological, formal versus emotional, public versus private, intimate versus external. Safe Haven is a project that, through painting, finds itself in the delicate in-between that both separates and unites these dualities. The exhibition also includes an immersive installation. In this piece Yelletisch combines painting and installation to present an intervened greenhouse, embraced by four large paper arms and hands. The concept of “home” permeates the exhibition: every painting, every hill, and every sky is a view from within.

In this project, Maria revisits her search for solace and security from multiple perspectives, extending this inquiry to her own artistic practice. Is this not what every artist does—employing a different language to think beyond words, creating to address difficult questions? In this case: Can a painting, by its mere presence, offer itself as a refuge or as a device for care? Do these paintings suggest that Maria has spent much more time contemplating the potential of painting itself than the landscapes that inspired it? It is as if she poses this question to her medium and invites us to explore it with her.

QY2023

By Maru Quiñonero, Maria Yelletisch