Javier Leon Perez: "The works INTERIOR 1 and INTERIOR 2 were created during my artist residency in Sorrento and originate from the construction of a paper model: the representation of an unreal architectural space, conceived not as a habitable place, but as a mental structure. These models function as experimental scenarios, where architecture is freed from functional logic to become a territory for perceptual exploration. The lighting of these models—applied in different ways—generates dreamlike atmospheres that transform the space and endow it with an almost intangible dimension. From these models, I investigate spatial, chromatic, and luminous possibilities, understanding light as a constructive element that defines and alters the perception of space. Subsequently, these images are digitally manipulated using generative artificial intelligence. This process allows me to introduce variations, effects, and luminous “errors” that escape rational control, lending a surreal character reminiscent of what could be called a digital dreamscape. Far from seeking a perfect image, this stage of the process embraces imperfection and chance as creative tools.
The resulting images become the starting point for the paintings, executed using the traditional technique of oil painting with a brush. In this transition between media—model, digital image, artificial intelligence, and paint—the work is constructed as a process of reverberation, in which the paint passes through different phases and supports before being fixed on the canvas.
For me, painting is a way of seeing and thinking aesthetically. In INTERIOR 1 and INTERIOR 2, the represented spaces allude to a personal need to explore inner territories, to discover mental recesses through a dreamlike journey. They are places suspended between the architectural and the psychological, between the built and the imagined, where light acts as a guide in a process of introspective exploration.