Lita Cabellut, 'Layered Identities'

Opera Gallery Singapore

22 May - 07 June 2026

Opera Gallery is pleased to present 'Layered Identities', the new exhibition by Lita Cabellut, marking the continuation of a long-standing and valued collaboration with the artist.

Through a body of previously unseen portraits, the exhibition investigates the mutable nature of identity in an interconnected world, where experience, memory, and perception intertwine. Cabellut’s visual language combines technical rigor with expressive intensity, creating a tension between meticulous figuration and gestural intervention. Faces emerge and dissolve on living surfaces, marked by fractures that convey the passage of time and accumulated experience.

The gaze as a space of relation

At the center of the exhibition is the theme of the gaze, understood as a space of exchange where vision evolves into experience, surpassing mere observation. In this context, the narrative deconstructs the ways in which history and environment are inscribed upon the human form, revealing a universal essence. The portrayed subjects, such as Alba, Evi, and Simon, establish a direct contact with the viewer, demanding recognition of their presence as active entities within the representation and challenging the observer’s own position.

Layered Identities

The portraits in 'Layered Identities' resist any single interpretation, presenting identity as a complex, multilayered system. Each figure appears both singular and part of a broader fabric, reflecting a contemporary condition in which affiliations and references multiply. The multicultural dimension, suggested by the diversity of subjects, creates a fluid and interconnected human landscape, in which the self is constantly shaped, interrupted, and rewritten over time.

Materiality and fragmentation

Cabellut’s painting develops through a sophisticated exploration of materiality, where a restrained palette of earthy ochres and siennas provides a solid, organic structure. On this surface, sudden chromatic ruptures and graphic interventions introduce tension and instability, evoking the sensory overload of contemporary life. These interferences complicate the reading of the subjects, suggesting how identity is constantly rewritten or influenced by external forces, never reaching a fixed outcome.

Rooted in a profound knowledge of art history yet firmly anchored in the present, Lita Cabellut, with 'Layered Identities', offers a striking reflection on contemporary conditions, inviting viewers to a deeper awareness of the fragmented and globalized reality in which we live.