Critics

REVIEWS PAINTINGS BY FRANCESC ORENCH (Summary)

THE GALLERY MADRID AREA (April 2025)

Francesc Orench returns to the gallery for the second time, reaffirming his place as a creator who not only explores the physical limit of the canvas, but also the emotional tensions that reside on the threshold of the visible.

This large-format work, executed in mixed technique on canvas, is presented as a chromatic storm that seems to have been conceived from within the viewer himself, as if the pictorial matter had emerged from the collective subconscious

The first impact is, without a doubt, the color. The power of orange and blue, in constant friction and harmony, dominates the surface with an intensity that borders on the violent. It is not a simple coexistence of complementary tones: it is a struggle, a hug, a fusion that condenses in the center of the composition. There, where the fire of orange and the serenity of the blue collide, an abstract wave is born that unfolds as a symbol of that "imminent change" to which the title alludes. The work does not illustrate, but warns; does not represent, but summons.

The brushstroke, vehement and gestural, has an almost performative quality. Orench Bernat does not paint, act on the canvas. Each stroke is a trace of an energy in transit, a gesture full of urgency. There is something ritual in the way the artist lets the pigments melt, as if the work had been cooked in the heat of a revelation.

In this second appearance in the gallery, Orench not only demonstrates technical maturity, but a greater conceptual load. "Imminent Change" is not simply an emotional landscape; it is a warning, an omen made matter. The spectator is suspended in that moment prior to the transformation, trapped between fire and heaven, between chaos and possibility.

With this piece, Francesc Orench Bernat not only confirms his voice in the contemporary artistic panorama, but also raises, pointing towards territories where art becomes a vital experience, and where painting, far from being contemplated, is lived.

DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE, City Council of Canet de Mar (Barcelona) (May 2025)

"A dialogue between form and absence"

Orench takes us into a pictorial universe in which figuration and abstraction meet in a delicate dance.

Francesc Orench's exhibition presents us with works in which the gaze discovers fleeting images, traces of colors and visual silences that seem to be born and disappear before our eyes. The brushstrokes, with their ephemeral precision, weave on the canvas shapes that are insinuated, that can be seen without being fully defined. This constant game of appearance and disappearance creates a suggestive illusion, where the viewer becomes an active part in the construction of meaning.

Orench's art is an invitation to deep contemplation, to a space where the concrete and the intangible coexist in harmony, generating an atmosphere that resonates with reality and the mystery of the inexplicable. Stripping the landscape of its conventional elements, the artist transforms them into abstractions that capture the essentials of our entorm,

The sensations that emanate from these abstract works connect us with the same emotion as figurative painting, but through the language of pure suggestion.

THE GALLERY MADRID AREA (October 29, 2024)

Francesc Orench Bernat, presents in the gallery two works that stand out for their subtle balance between figuration and abstraction. With an unmistakable style, Orench Bernat shows us in one of his pieces a group of sailboats floating serenely on the water, while in the other he transports us to a country landscape of trees that seems to emerge and vanish before our eyes.

His brushstrokes, as precise as they are ephemeral, dance on the canvas, suggesting shapes that are insinuated without being completely defined. This game of appearance and disappearance generates a visual illusion in which the main motif is partially revealed, inviting the viewer to complete the image from his own perception. Orench Bernat's work thus becomes an experience of active contemplation, where the figurative and the abstract coexist in harmony, achieving an atmosphere that evokes both reality and the mystery of the undefined.

PARIS EXPO PORTE VERSAILLES (January 2025) (Sara Ferrer, REVISTART)

At the beginning of the year, "Le Papillon" invaded pavilion 5.2, a proposal by Francesc Orench Bernat, who traveled to the French capital, represented by the BCM Art Gallery. On this occasion, Orench makes us vibrate with a piece made using the oil and acrylic technique on canvas, where a beautiful butterfly flies over some flowers that open their petals when they see it. The symbiosis existing in nature is complexly perfect; its beauty dances our protagonist, who seems to pay an exciting tribute.

Carlota de CARVAJAL (review of REVISTART magazine) (October 2024)

Natalia de PEDROSO, has curatorized the collective exhibition "Octubre", in which Francesc Orench Bernat participates with his works. In "VVV" a group of sailboats rests on the sea, attentive to any unforeseen event. The oils suppress the energy and strength that these boats possess, which are ready for the adversities of the storm, whether it is a strong wind, an intense wave or a placid tide. The open stroke unfolds on the canvas with an agitated rhythm in which the orange colors of the canvases merge with the sky and dye the spontaneous ocean with reflections.

Carlota de CARVAJAL (review of REVISTART magazine) (August 2024)

Between the distant past and the remote future. Two distant times meet at the same time, is what happens in Francesc Orench's oils. The artist makes us travel with our predecessors, who captured in the caves a rock art typical of prehistory. They usually filled the walls with motifs, linked to the rituals of those inhabitants. In the work "Any 14.019" the artist includes objects and technologies of the present, following the aesthetics of cave paintings. In his works, the hands are present in the same way as they were yesterday.

Amanda HERNANDEZ (revistart review) (April 2024)

"Observant expressions" is the new solo exhibition of the artist Francesc Orench. Orench's compositions could be classified as landscapers, but I would not define the full breadth of these. Paintings with bright colors and sinuous figures that take their work to abstraction but at the same time transport us to idyllic places. Brushstrokes loaded with paint and quick strokes show us his vitality and expressiveness when working on his paintings and taking us down the path of impressionism.

Pablo SANTIRSO (critic of REVISTART magazine) (December 2023)

"CO2H" is a title that can be cryptic for many people who observe this work by Orench, but those who are experts in chemical composition can extract a message of criticism of pollution.

The letters and numbers of its title can be translated as the chemical nomenclature of carboxylic acids, widely used for the development of pesticides, acetates and plastic polymers. If we add to that the composition of colors and how the long black drops are distributed as buildings, we are facing a work of sharp criticism towards the environmental consequences produced by large factories.

Gabriel ANDERES (critic of REVISTART magazine) (October 2023)

Orench deconstructs the concept of landscape as we understand it in painting to develop works of a more abstract nature, which reduce elements of our environment to their most elementary forms. While it is true that his paintings can be understood as landscapes from a technical point of view, the parts that underlie it are suggested instead of being represented explicitly, which allows him to work on the same sensations that we would develop when seeing a classic naturalistic painting.

Joseo GARCIA (TANDEMT ART GALLERY) (2023)

Orench is an artist with a wide brushstroke and thick fillings with a great chromatic richness, developing a thematic variety, combining abstract impressionism with figurative expressionism. An artistic vision that will not leave you indifferent.

Sonixe AVNATAMOFF (Journalist and art critic in Paris) (2016)

Make a painting full of life, with brushstrokes full of emotion and expression, with forcefulness. It's life in motion, emotional displacement. I see in his painting an air of Van Gogh's last creations, especially in the painting "Wheat field with crows". His tendency is abstract impressionism, with strength, vigor and color."

Joel RISTOL (Painter and art critic) (2020)

"We can observe in his works a great strength and expressiveness in the stroke and the stain, a form of abstract impressionism where, and although some of the works are preserved forms and figurative spaces, they give us the freedom to the viewer to interpret the work and necessarily see ourselves reflected in it."

Marina GARCIA and CARBONELL (Art historian) (2020)

"The distinctive mark of Orench's work is the energetic, almost expressionist brushstroke.( ...) Initially inspired by naïf, figurism and the landscaping of houses, streets or marinas, it has now moved on to make stronger, more sincere, free and creative brushstrokes in an incursion into the abstract world."

Aitor ROGER (Historian, Blanes City Council Archive) (2020)

"Francesc Orench's tracks are characterized by being full of energy, vitality and color. They are made from expression-laden brushstrokes, what the author himself likes to call "abstract impressionism (...)"

Eva PALAU (Blanes City Council Communications) (2018)

(...) Over time his style has evolved naturally, without forcing, going from a figurative style to an abstract impressionism. Essentially self-taught, his brushstrokes are expressive and full of emotions and optimism."

Josep GIBERT (Degree in Philosophy and diploma in Library and Documentation) (Works 2021, 22)

"Perception is never neutral and the events of these days lead us to identify the reds of the picture with the confirmation that we are still in the igneous cycle. Likewise, the chromatic palettes of impressionist style, suppose a continuation of the brand style of the house, but this time only in half a frame. The other part could be the sea, with a rich background of life still, but that already has the laundry that, beating the cliff, falls above it. Certainly another viewer can perceive different sensations and elaborate different stories. that even include the enigmatic floating ball of the seabed!"

"These days we are mediatized by the explosions of the old Cerro and its vomiting magmatic flows that are slowly sweeping with everything they find in their path. "These days we are mediatized by the explosions of the old Cerro and its vomiting magmatic flows that are slowly sweeping with everything they find in their path.

Francisco has been with a kind of igneous cycle for a while where fire is the protagonist. Here the cycle continues, but leaves its technique of impressionist palettes for the rays of the paint tubes. A mass of milky paint could suggest a kind of animal being that is about to be swallowed by the magma mass. The beast is horrified, but inevitably, even the remains of its hair, represented by the ropes that hang outside the painting, will also soon be the flaming grass. Action, movement in a single canvas where the chromaticism and drama of fire make a presence." Action, movement in a single canvas where the chromaticism and drama of fire make a presence." However, it does not stop following your style, rather abstract, of chromatic composition with a reduced number of elements but very intense.

What draws attention is that you have not only re-enseed the color of the fire but also the dryness of the ground, the violent movement of the sparks, the suffocation of the suffocating ashen smoke and, ultimately, the power, at the same time radiant and magnetic, at the same time devastating and devouring, of the flames"

You show us more and more interaction in your abstract impressionism"