Freight+Volume presents Puti Pandi, an exhibition of recent paintings by Mallorca-based artist
Bel Fullana. Puti Pandi will be on view May 12th - June 18th, 2022. 

The layered, brightly colored hues of Bel Fullana’s canvases revel in extremes. From the severity
with which different zones of color are walled off from each other, to the way her otherworldly
palette yields a mellowing tranquility—Bel Fullana paintings push their subject-matter and
materials to their limit, then spill over into something else.

In the context of Puti Pandi (which translated into English means Bad Girls Gang) Fullana’s
painterly extremes feed into representations of women who are extreme in their own right.
Feminine, marvelous, not to be messed with, alluring, and seemingly indestructible. All the
markings of girlishness are present, but as floating signifiers rather than paragons. The figure in
the painting Baby Killer, for example, radiates all the enchantment of a Lisa Frank sticker; but
her boots with hearts for eyes, and her dolphin tattoo, only serve to highlight the fact that she’s
actually posing on a battlefield.

Looking into the glistening, anime-like eyes of Fullana’s “bad girls,” one can’t help but think of
global conflicts affecting citizens worldwide. The Instagrammable pose each girl adopts suggests
love spilling over into duty. Even as soldiers, however, these girls exist to fight for themselves as
much as against the onslaughts of their enemies. The figure featured in Fuck Off Queen has this
very message quite literally written all over her body. Yet this urbane vulgarity becomes an
eloquent statement of self-affirmation, of indignant autonomy, when set against the patterned
flames that constitute the painting’s backdrop.

An air of familiarity, even security, halos the alien qualities of the dangerous women who
constitute Fullana’s Puti Pandi. Their fishnet stockings, tight bodysuits, tattoos and long nails
could easily feature in a trap or reggaeton music video; and the imminent catastrophes they're
poised to defend against lends them an almost totemic stature. Incorporating imagery, signs, and
symbols earmarked as “girly” showcases their maturity in the face of the roles society would
impose on them. These Puti Pandi are not only ciphers for a world steeped in war, but
otherworldly visitors who remind us to embrace the adventitious nature of experience.