Honys Torres — Artwork: “ALÓ”

Gratitude to the audience of the 67th Arturo Michelena Salon

I want to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who visited the 67th Arturo Michelena Salon, a fundamental space for Venezuelan art that recently came to a close. Participating in this edition with my artwork “ALÓ” was a profound honor and an experience I will carry with me for a long time.

My heartfelt thanks go to the audience who walked through the exhibition hall, who observed with attention, who smiled, remembered, asked questions, and allowed themselves to be moved by the many voices that coexisted in this show. Every gaze and every gesture of interest nourishes the meaning of my work and reminds me of the importance of continuing to create from memory, humor, and cultural critique.

About my artwork “ALÓ”

“ALÓ” was born from the desire to reconnect with Venezuelan affective memory through one of its most emblematic figures: POPY. This clown, a central character in children’s television for decades, becomes in this piece a Neo Pop icon, reinterpreted through the color, irony, and visual energy that define my artistic language.

In the work, POPY appears surrounded by elements that belong to the collective imagination:

• the red telephone that activates the gesture of “aló”,

• fragmented words such as “ACTION!”, “TOP”, “YESTERDAY”,

• the childhood paper airplane game with its “GROUND” and “SKY” squares,

• secondary characters inhabiting the scene as if it were a television set,

• vibrant colors that evoke play, chaos, and joy.

The piece functions as an emotional collage, where childhood, television, spectacle, and memory intertwine. In this context, POPY is not just a character: he becomes a bridge to a time, a symbol that survives the passing of years and continues to inhabit Venezuelan cultural identity.

“ALÓ” is part of my ongoing exploration of how popular icons shape our sensibilities, how nostalgia transforms into visual language, and how humor can serve as both a critical and an affective tool.

Thank you for accompanying me, for looking, for remembering, and for allowing this work to find new resonances in each of you.

With gratitude, Honys Torres