Mitologías modernas: Ouka Leele & Co

Sala Alcalá 31 of the Community of Madrid is hosting an exhibition from 2 July to 18 October that revisits the role of mythology in Madrid art during the 1980s, based on the work of Ouka Leele alongside key artists such as El Hortelano, Ceesepe, Carlos Franco and Sigfrido Martin Begué.

Taking Rapelle toi, Barbara!, the iconic intervention carried out by Ouka Leele (Madrid, 1957-2022) at the Cibeles fountain in 1987, as a starting point, the exhibition explores how various artists linked to New Figuration and the Madrid Scene reclaimed classical mythology as a symbolic tool to interpret a new cultural reality during the Transition.

The exhibition brings together over a hundred works by artists such as Ouka Leele, El Hortelano, Ceesepe, Carlos Franco, Sigfrido Martín Begué, Guillermo Pérez Villalta, Dis Berlin, Pablo Sycet, Carlos Alcolea, Costus and Patricia Gadea, among others. Through paintings, photographs, drawings and pieces connected to new media and performances, the journey sets up a dialogue between classical tradition, popular culture and contemporary experimentation.

The project analyses how these creators incorporated references originating from underground comics, fanzines, romanticism and art history to construct new visual narratives about Madrid and its cultural transformation during the eighties. In this exhibition, the work of Ouka Leele holds a central place by connecting photography, painting and theatricalisation with the mythological imaginary.