STATEMENT

Lupe Godoy was born in Spain and graduated from the University of Valencia. Exploring the play between realism and abstraction, Lupe Godoy has a versatile oeuvre, ranging from acrylic on canvas, works on paper and overpainted photographs.

In her work the artist reflects the socio-cultural-ecological state of the world. Skillfully, she combines cuttings from magazines with ink and acrylics to form new associations and narratives.

Lupe Godoy’s works of recycled imagery portray nature, overabundance, beauty, art history, gender roles, ecology and architecture; they make us reflect on the processes of global cultural and art production.

The painterly and photographic materials merge in the creation of these works in multiple narrations and interrelated series. At the same time, they are, in their final form, part of a new and indissoluble unit in the work of the artist.

Her current work can be categorized by three main themes: landscapes, boxes and dystopias.

The works in the first thematic complex understand landscape as a poetic metaphor – a hybrid nature that questions structures and influences. She explores man’s uncertain relationship with his environment and works from a position of the outsider presenting the landscape that stands in an intimate relationship with the human figure even in the absence of it.

The landscape series “When winds blow” shows the beauty and power of nature: a tropical storm bends the palm trees, the majesty of rigid winter trees or the bucolic harmony that reveals the view from a lush green onto a disused winding tower. It is only with the association “climate” and “climate change” that the traces of dramatic changes, the dynamics of destruction and the consequences for our being are revealed in the landscapes.

While the landscape images can be read as an appeal to address the issue of climate change, her works series “One Box, One Voice” in the “Boxes” complex address another acute problem: poverty and migration as the consequences of globalization.

Simple wooden boxes made of materials found by chance in the city with a compartment inside and a handle on the top are used by shoe polishers for the storage and transport of shoe polishing materials.

The materials they are made of is more than just wood, wire, paint and rubber: it is the background for numerous biographies that are imprinted on the box. The sweat of the hands that carried them, the dirt of the streets they were standing on and traces of paint on the wood create a patina that gives the shoe-shine boxes an energy all their own.

Although the inspiration for the box project comes from Ethiopia, this cycle of works is geographically and temporally open, as the local peculiarities point to a global phenomenon; the shoe shine boxes become symbols of migration in the globalized economy and the precariousness of many livelihoods. The work cycle is both a homage to individuality and a reflection of global cycles.

Dystopia is the third thematic bracket of her current work. Here, too, in addition to acute experiences of the pandemic, diffuse fears, level-headed and confusing reactions, reference should be made to universally valid, fateful things. The dystopian collages reflect universal fears: fear of loneliness, being lost in a changed world and death.

Environmental destruction and climate change, poverty and migration, fear and loss of orientation can be read as leitmotifs of her work, which, however, also want to convey hope and consolation in their aesthetic sublimation. This shows the social relevance of her work: they are a warning and praise for the beauty of our existence.

Lupe Godoy has lived and worked in Berlin since 1995