The municipal delegate for Culture, Susana Rivas; the director of the Chiclana Museum, Jesús Romero; and the artist Bern Foster have inaugurated the exhibition ‘Pacific Dreams’, which can be visited at the Chiclana Museum until September 20th. The exhibition highlights the Chiclana-based illustrator for his retro, vibrant, and nostalgic aesthetic, which has propelled him to international recognition.
The work of Bern Foster, whose real name is Bernardo Bejerano Narváez, evokes the 1980s and 1990s through references to pop culture, music, and vintage advertising. His distinctive signature is the use of acrylic and traditional airbrushing, a craft technique that sets him apart almost uniquely on the global stage against the dominance of digital art. His pieces, characterized by saturated colors and impeccable compositions, have led to collaborations with fashion brands like Nude Project, covers for Warner Records, and campaigns for brands owned by Kylie Jenner.
“"The exhibition comes from one of our Chiclana talents who has worked beyond our borders. It is a work with a fresh feel, showing the work he has done that has led him to collaborate with advertising companies and record labels. I invite citizens to visit the exhibition until next September 20th."
“"I thank the Chiclana Museum for the magnificent work done on this exhibition, which I never imagined could be carried out, as I never painted these works with that purpose. I started painting while working as an engineer in England and ended up in a painting studio. My paintings do not hold very deep meanings; rather, they aim to captivate the viewer from the very first second, which is why they found a place within fashion and advertising."
The exhibited works forgo deep discourses to focus on the absolute power of aesthetics. The viewer is immediately captivated by impeccable compositions and saturated colors that celebrate the seductive appeal of capitalism and vintage advertising. These are honest works, straightforward, precisely what they are and what they intended to be from the moment of their conception. Works that sound familiar, even if we haven't seen them exactly before, because they refer to many others we hold in our memory. But this time, we will not see them on a huge billboard or reproduced in a magazine. This time, we will see them as they are, as they came from Foster's hand, as they are original acrylics created by him. The virtuosity is evident. It might even blind us to other aspects of his work, which do exist.
The career of Bern Foster—from the eroticism of his beginnings, his pinups, or his fictional characters to his latest works—is a testament to discipline and self-taught passion. An engineer by profession, in 2015 he decided to fully commit to illustration, absorbing influences from great figures like Hiroshi Nagai or Hajime Sorayama. His key differentiator lies in the use of acrylic paint and traditional airbrushing techniques, a craft that makes him stand out almost uniquely worldwide against the current tide of digital art.
Therefore, alongside the works gathered here and now, the Museum adds a series of complementary pieces—such as sketches of some of them and the artist's own work tools—which allow us to delve into their procedural dimension, in addition to others that add interest to the collection. Hosting the work of Bern Foster in our halls is a source of pride and an exceptional opportunity for Chiclana's cultural offerings, marking the return home of a local talent whose work has graced the covers of British magazines like Artists & Illustrators, proving that freshness and technical quality know no borders.
