ISLA BONITA

In her first solo exhibition at LA BIBI + REUS, artist Bel Fullana (Mallorca, 1985) continues to showcase the unique universe she proudly carries as her flag—an untamed spirit that she doesn’t put on; it simply is who she is. The beautiful island she calls home serves as her inexhaustible source of inspiration. In particular, she draws from a certain kind of tourism: one that arrives with a single goal—to have fun—regardless of where they are, and with no concern for the place they’ve landed in. For them, the island becomes nothing more than the backdrop for a theme park experience.

Unleashing her joie de vivre—a French expression meaning “the joy of living,” the enjoyment and exaltation of the spirit—Fullana refrains from passing moral judgment. Everyone has the right to live as they see fit, and to enjoy life in their own way; it’s just one valid option among many. In her works, hordes of sunburned bodies surrender to a wild hedonism, seen through a youthful lens: one of holiday leisure, parties, alcohol, and rampant sex, at any time of day or night.

Fullana does not judge; instead, she filters and describes, always with humor and caricature. She paints a portrait of that particular type of low-end visitor—what some might label “white trash”—that we outwardly reject, yet inwardly value as a (supposed) driver of economic prosperity. These summer invaders become part of the bizarre landscape where “anything goes” is the unspoken motto.

“As a native, a spectator, and a resident of Mallorca,” Fullana says, “I examine the imaginary that fills the spaces inhabited by these newcomers. Their stay takes place in a kind of parallel universe, where everything is artificial and fleeting, and where social relationships come with an expiration date.”

In this exhibition, the artist splits herself in two, expressing a kind of artistic duality. On one side, we have the classic (familiar) Bel—let’s call her Dr. Bel—creating the types of paintings we know: distorted environments, parodic abstractions, aggressive yet unstable linework, often done with her non-dominant left hand, as if drawing with defiance and amorality.

On the other side, we meet Miss Fullana, who presents a series of much more realistic paintings—what we might call Fullanesque realism. These works replicate low-quality, mass-produced beach towels from China, emblazoned with random images and stamped with the word “Mallorca,” sold in any souvenir shop. They also depict globalized food dishes—those ubiquitous stock images you’d find on menus at beach bars around the world, regardless of the actual dish served (expectation vs. reality). Palm trees? Tigers? Tropical fruits? Burgers? Dolphins? Sexy topless girls? Pizza slices? Yes—all of it and none of it, at the same time.

She also creates a series of small-format paintings, rendered life-size, of everyday tourist objects: a lighter, a ketchup packet, a euro coin, a lipstick. The context doesn’t matter—only the experience they offer. It’s a recurring list of clichés that mythologize these settings in a redundant and satirical way, turning them into the perfect stage for the kitschy, colorful behavior of the visitors who inhabit them.

“This is a depiction of the landscape surrounding this whole situation,” the artist explains, “a landscape that doesn’t belong to the reality of the territory, but rather to a broader, globalized reality—a longing for partying, sun, and beach that is repeated in countless places around the world where the right conditions exist to host tourism of this nature. It doesn’t matter where on the globe the location is—all of them share a similar imaginary.”

This (im)possible atmosphere constructed by Fullana is staged as an installation, synthetically and artificially recreating a landscape-place/no-place. It becomes a kind of set within a larger set, where the audience itself takes on the role of the tourist.