Flora, Fauna, and Furniture

Pentimenti presents Flora, Fauna, and Furniture a solo exhibition marking Aitor Lajarin-Encina’s Philadelphia debut. Aitor Lajarin-Encina’s paintings engage in dialogue with global histories of painting and popular image-making traditions, drawing from sources as varied as Baroque art, Constructivism, satirical cartoons, and video games. They function as visual poems, inviting viewers into moments of existential suspense that spark philosophical reflections on life and relationships between people, objects, and the environment. At first glance, Aitor’s playful, cartoony, oneiric acrylic-on-canvas paintings appear figurative and tightly composed, relying heavily on narrative tension and visual appeal. They unfold as dreamlike tableaux populated by recurring iconographic elements: human figures, horses, celestial bodies, domestic furniture and objects, clothing, parks, cityscapes, plants, and everyday items. Beneath this apparently flat appearance, the surface opens into multiple layers rich with texture—drips, splatters, bumps, and accidents—carefully constructed and physically present in his work. Lajarin-Encina approaches art as an immediate and intuitive experience, emphasizing its poetic intensity and emotional resonance rather than hidden or symbolic meanings. At the same time, the work offers a critique of a world designed by humans to be 'user-friendly,' while simultaneously estranging people from the natural mysteries and wonders of the world.