Iza Caparas: Painter of the Urban Life

The philosopher Paul Virilio believes that our life in the city is defined and determined by speed, which for him is a form of militarism combined with capitalism that structures our world in a constant state of crisis and an unending cold war of environmental and economic exploitation. Our alienation can be perfectly explained by our orientation to this speed that oftentimes leads to a proliferation of phantoms that obscure our perception of the world or to the saturation of images that deprives us of our energy. It is not surprising therefore that artists often depict the city in abstract forms, transparent, blurry, or glassy. It is as if these paintings try not just to present a space but also our attitude towards it, our way of seeing, including how we want to perceive or desire the city to be. This is the reason that painters and artists always endeavor positively to reinvent our vision of the world, and Iza Caparas’ Urban Life offers a different vista from what had been articulated already. And yet it adds to the whole discourse of city critique, and gladly leads us away from ruins, from the destruction of our milieu, and towards the ultimate acceptance of the other and of what is different.