Decadent Alfresco Feasts Serve as Reminders of Simple Pleasures in Pedro Pedro's 'Picnic'

""I believe a picnic is a utopia," says Pedro Pedro, whose new solo exhibition at Fundación La Nave Salinas takes its name from the titular activity. In Picnic, the Los Angeles-based artist celebrates togetherness, relaxation, and small daily luxuries as a means of maintaining balance and cheerfulness, even during challenging times. Picnic highlights a total of 15 new canvases. "Beneath their exuberant surfaces lies a subtle homage to the 1950s, through the depiction of mid‐century furniture and aesthetic,"

"Using textile paint on unprimed linen, Pedro begins each work with a digital design, which he then sketches onto the substrate using chalk and fills in with color. The closer one studies a painting, the more motifs appear to replicate, like flawless and nearly identical lilies, dollops of whipped cream, orange slices, or melons. Just like his method, the relationship between how we read digital and "natural" imagery blurs."

"Half-peeled citrus, knives abandoned in pastries, and random garments suggest that whoever is enjoying the picnic has perhaps just run off to take a dip in the sea and will be back any moment. Mirroring the artist's interest in utopia, an ideal and perfect society, every element of his paintings is bright, juicy, and surreally, well, perfect. He draws inspiration from the joyously rotund forms of Colombian artist Fernando Botero and the Wayne Thiebaud 's decadent pies and cakes."

Picnic is a solo exhibition of 15 new canvases by Los Angeles–based artist Pedro Pedro at Fundación La Nave Salinas in Ibiza. Vibrant paintings celebrate togetherness, relaxation, and small daily luxuries as tools for balance and cheerfulness during challenging times. The works subtly reference 1950s mid‑century furniture and aesthetic to critique the relentless pace of 2025 and invite savoring the present. Pedro begins with digital designs, sketches them onto unprimed linen with chalk, and fills with textile paint, producing repetitive, perfect motifs like lilies, whipped cream, and fruit. Imagery blurs digital and natural, suggesting picnickers briefly away, and the compositions draw on Botero and Thiebaud's sensibilities toward abundance and delight.

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