Discreet Charm / Juan de la Rica
ODENSE
Discreet Charm presents Juan de la Rica’s latest exploration of the female figure, bringing together sixteen recent paintings and a selection of works on paper—many of which began as preparatory sketches for the canvases. Together, these works trace the fluid dialogue between study and resolution, intimacy and structure.
Continuing the artist’s exploration of composition, this body of work examines how bodies occupy and define space, how proportions can be stretched or compressed, and how forms connect and interact across the pictorial field. Built from synthetic shapes and bold chromatic contrasts, the paintings carry a playful, almost pop-like energy, yet beneath this surface vibrancy lies a quiet tension and subtle sense of unease.
The drawings provide a more intimate perspective into the studio process. Executed in colored pencil, they uncover the artist’s working rhythm—the translation of gesture into form and the moment where impulse takes shape. Seen together, the paintings and drawings articulate a conversation between immediacy and deliberation, revealing a practice attuned to both the allure and ambiguity of representation.
Upcoming exhibitions
Piece of cake! // Holly Halkes // solo
Copenhagen 21.11 - 19.12
Opening day 21.11.25 5pm - 8pm
With wild, celebratory energy, Holly Halkes’s new exhibition "Piece of Cake" invites visitors into a world where the boundaries between reality and fantasy are deliciously blurred.
Through 13 paintings and 8 works on paper, Halkes conjures a feverish carnival of colour, abundance, and unruly humour.
Fruits, cakes, and party motifs tumble across her surfaces, attended by fluttering insects and bursts of paint that evoke both chaos and joy.
The carnivalesque spirit—a central concern in Halkes’s practice—animates every canvas, breaking down barriers between figures, forms, and everyday logic.
Vivid strawberries, playful butterflies, and juicy plums reappear throughout the works, swirling amid ribbons and quirky symbols that heighten the sense of movement and improvisation. The painting gestures are bold and spontaneous, reflecting the artist’s pursuit of pleasure and irreverence.
The abundance and humour are undercut by hints of uncertainty and self-questioning, echoing the emotional complexities of our social realities.
In Halkes’s world, fun is serious business. Her paintings propose an alternate social space—one shaped by openness and abundance—where we are free to question, laugh, and experience the full spectrum of what it means to be human.
Piece of Cake is an invitation to indulge, reflect, and find both pleasure and poignancy in the unruly feast of contemporary life.
