Cardúmen

Looking down through clear blue waters, thousands of brightly coloured fish curl beneath the surface, clustered in schools and grouped by the currents.

Jumping in, Arvilla was surrounded by the darting waves of colour of the cardúmen (‘schools of fish’). Just off the island of Aruba in the Caribbean, Arvilla was snorkelling amongst countless, jewel-like tropical fish.

The Cardúmen series of paintings captures this feeling of immersion in living colour through expressive mark-making. Layered in flowing arcs, the bold stripes converge and eddy in waves across the canvas, bringing a sensation of the ocean to shore.

Now, in a time of depleting oceans due to global warming and over-fishing, Arvilla makes the beauty and fragility of nature his subject. Sightings of large schools of different fish signify the health of oceans; here, they spur us on to act, and offer a glimmer of hope.