I like that JJ Manford's works make me think of the fantasy of space. I don't know if I'm in his real life or in his dreams, as the oil pastel works give the impression of hazy setting, something almost far away in the back of the mind. Like you are fighting to get a clearer memory. And the rooms, the colors, make you feel nostalgic. The use of the words Jaune Brilliant, the title of Manford's show on view now at Galería Marta Cervera in Madrid, refers to a color in the yellow family, already giving you the impression of something aged, something from eras ago. And maybe with the modernist domestic spaces, with pieces of art history placed prominently alongside pop-cultural icons, gives you the feeling of an actual space, a place you could actually live.
But no persons appear. These are empty. They look lived in but they look almsot too good to be lived in. You wonder, in Manford's dream settings, can we live in our fantasies? Can we live in our dream settings? How can we reach these places? Do they, can they, exist? I love that in all this beauty, all this desire to live in nostalgic dreams, we are left with questions. —Evan Pricco
