Opera Gallery Monaco has opened the first major Monaco show by Spanish painter Xevi Solà, a set of swimming-pool paintings that borrow their subject from David Hockney. The exhibition, Thoughts of a Bigger Splash, runs until 15th October — its title a play on Hockney’s 1967 painting A Bigger Splash, three months after the British artist died in June aged 88.

Solà takes the pool that Hockney made a symbol of sunlit 1960s California and drains the glamour out of it. His pools are quieter and more unsettling, filled with tall, models-like figures who stare blankly past one another, gathering and drifting apart without ever connecting. He has said he draws on fashion photography, film stills and mugshots, working in bright, flat colour.

The show gathers works all painted this year, among them a diptych, Coupe du Monde, showing figures ranged around a pool; Rendez-vous and Sunrise, two pairs of figures set against a twilight sky and the sea; and Vestiaires, which moves away from the water but keeps the same mood.

“We’re honoured to present Xevi Solà’s first major exhibition here in Monaco,” said Federica Beretta, Global Director of Opera Gallery. “His approach places him within a broader lineage of contemporary figurative painting, while his distinctive use of colour, composition and cinematic framing establishes a visual language entirely his own.”

Solà, 57, was born in Santa Coloma de Farners in Catalonia and lives and works in Girona. He has exhibited across Europe, the United States and Asia, and has been represented by Opera Gallery since 2025, a year after his first show with the gallery in Geneva.

Thoughts of a Bigger Splash is at Opera Gallery Monaco, at the Palais de la Scala on avenue Henri Dunant, until 15th October, open Monday to Saturday.

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Main photo credit: Philippe Fitte