New York is a city that demands clarity, conviction, and work that can hold its own against a relentless visual rhythm. That context gives added weight to Endless Sun-days, Xevi Solà’s first solo exhibition in the city, opening at Opera Gallery this February. Comprising 15 new canvases, the exhibition marks a pivotal moment for the Spanish painter, whose psychologically charged figurative scenes have quietly built an international following.
Solà’s paintings appear calm at first glance. Figures gather poolside, lounge in warm light, or pause in moments that suggest leisure. Yet the longer one looks, the more the atmosphere shifts. These are not scenes of simple ease. They carry a sense of distance, suspension, and unresolved emotion that mirrors contemporary life, where outward comfort often coexists with private unease.
Presented together, Endless Sun-days reads as a visual diary shaped by cinema, fashion photography, and memory. The works invite viewers into moments that feel familiar without fully explaining themselves, allowing meaning to emerge slowly, and personally.
Solà has described this body of work as a collective psychological portrait, and that idea anchors the exhibition. The figures seem aware of one another yet emotionally self contained. Sunglasses obscure expressions. Body language suggests proximity without intimacy. The emotional tension is subtle, but consistently present.
This psychological undercurrent places Solà within a lineage of contemporary figurative painters who use restraint to communicate inner states. Working from spontaneous, single stroke sketches, he paints quickly to preserve immediacy and openness. The resulting instability in the figures is intentional. It mirrors the emotional states he is exploring, moments that feel provisional rather than resolved.
Several works reference shared visual histories. In Dimanche 1, 2025, four figures sit by a pool in silent contemplation, time seemingly paused. While echoes of David Hockney’s poolside imagery may surface, Solà’s approach is more inward looking. His scenes feel more introspective and shaped by suggestion. The influence of mid century French Riviera cinema, particularly the psychological tension of La Piscine (1969), and the leisure driven imagery of Slim Aarons can be felt, though never quoted directly.
Solà’s background as a self described homebody who drew inspiration from cinema as a child continues to inform his practice. Fashion photography, film stills, and even mugshots influence how his figures are staged. These references share a common trait: they imply a story without completing it.
That incompleteness is central to Endless Sun-days. Each canvas feels like a paused moment, encouraging viewers to imagine what came before or what might follow. The paintings resist narrative closure, favoring ambiguity and psychological projection. It is a strategy that aligns well with New York’s demanding visual environment, where work is often encountered quickly but remembered for what lingers.
Endless Sun-days will be on view at Opera Gallery New York from February 12 through March 7, 2026, marking Solà’s first solo presentation in the city. Opera Gallery, founded in Singapore in 1994, operates an international network with locations in London, Paris, Geneva, Madrid, Dubai, and New York, and specializes in modern, post war, and contemporary art.
The exhibition follows Solà’s first solo presentation with Opera Gallery in Geneva in 2024 and builds on a career that has included exhibitions across Europe, the United States, and Asia. Born in 1969 in Santa Coloma de Farners, Catalonia, Solà lives and works in Girona, Spain and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Barcelona in 2007.
Shown together, the 15 canvases form an intimate yet expansive body of work, one that reflects both personal psychology and broader cultural tension.
Caroline Dalal: This is your first solo exhibition in New York. How does showing Endless Sun-days in the city feel at this moment in your career?
Xevi Solà: It feels like a natural but important step. New York has a strong visual culture and a long relationship with painting, so showing this work here gives it a different kind of exposure and friction. At this point in my career, I’m interested in seeing how the work stands on its own in a city that’s very demanding visually.
CD: You’ve described this body of work as a kind of collective psychological portrait. What emotions or tensions were you most interested in capturing beneath these sunlit scenes?
XS: I was interested in the gap between how things look and how they feel. The scenes are bright, calm, even pleasant, but underneath there’s uncertainty, distance, or quiet anxiety. It’s less about dramatic emotion and more about subtle psychological tension that people recognize without needing it explained.
CD: Your paintings reference fashion photography, film stills, and cinema. How do those influences shape the stories unfolding just beyond the frame?
XS: Those references help me work with suggestion rather than narrative. Fashion images and film stills are designed to feel incomplete—you sense there’s something before and after the image. I use that language to let the viewer project their own story instead of fixing a specific one.
CD: Many of the figures appear relaxed, yet something feels unresolved. Why was that contrast between leisure and unease important to you in this series?
XS: Because that contrast feels very current to me. We’re surrounded by images of comfort, freedom, and enjoyment, but that doesn’t cancel out inner tension. I wanted the paintings to sit in that contradiction, where nothing is obviously wrong, but nothing is fully resolved either.
CD: You work quickly from single stroke sketches to preserve spontaneity. What does that immediacy allow you to express that a slower process might not?
XS: Speed helps me avoid overthinking. The first marks often carry more truth than refined decisions. Working quickly keeps the figures slightly unstable, a bit open, which matches the psychological state I’m trying to paint. A slower process would risk closing that openness too much.
Endless Sun-days arrives in New York without spectacle, and that restraint is part of its strength. Solà’s paintings ask for time, stillness, and emotional participation. In a city saturated with imagery, that quiet insistence feels intentional.
Opera Gallery’s presentation positions Solà at a moment where his work invites deeper scrutiny. The figures linger in a suspended summer that feels both distant and familiar, a reflection of how contemporary life often looks composed on the surface while remaining psychologically unresolved underneath.
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