From 2022, Ortega will return to painting after ten years solely working conceptually. The exhibition L’Angélus is the first presentation of the series of canvases depicting a pair of stones. The composition refers to Dalí’s painting Archaeological Reminiscence of Millet’s “Angelus” (Réminiscence archéologique de l'”Angélus” de Millet) from 1934, which is itself a reference to Jean-Francois Millet’s L’Angelus from 1859. Hence the work spans 165 years of art history. For Ortega, stones function as pareidolia.*
*Objects that – as with clouds – are interpreted by the viewers themselves by consciously or unconsciously discovering things or supposed faces in them.