The Casa de Las Tejerinas will host from next week a new collection of sculptures by the artist Toby Govan.

The inauguration of the exhibition ‘Naturaleza Viva’ will take place next Friday 22nd, at 8:30 pm, with the participation of the poet Lorena Jiménez. It can be visited until April 7, with free access.

The Estepona Town Hall informs that the central courtyard of the Casa de Las Tejerinas, located in the Plaza de las Flores, will host from March 22 to April 7 a new exhibition of sculptures by the Estepona artist, of Scottish origin, Toby Govan.

The new sculptural collection of this artist, author of four monumental works in the Villa, is entitled ‘Living Nature’, and will be inaugurated on Friday, March 22, at 20:30 hours. The exhibition consists of 7 abstract works carved in Sierra Bermeja stone (Naturaleza Viva, Hojas Secas, Canto de un Colirrojo Real, Enigma, Alas de Arena y Sal, Nexo and El Baile del Chal). Each work has a QR code in Spanish and English, with a descriptive audio poem recorded by local poet Lorena Jiménez, inviting the viewer to touch and listen at the same time, creating an “original and unique audio tactile sculptural experience: Listen, feel, touch it!”. For this, it is recommended to carry a cell phone with headphones.

The exhibition will remain open to the public until April 7, from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:00 to 23:00 hours, and Sunday, from 20:00 to 23:00 hours, including Easter, with free access.

As in past exhibitions, the sculptor invites the public to “feel the stones” and see the strength and energy they treasure, from whose interior emerge feelings such as affection, unity and integrity, through their shapes, colors and touch. And the essence of this artist is that his work is made to be touched, he seeks the complicity of the viewer to turn him into a “feeler”, whether in a work of three tons or a figure of 10 centimeters “that fits in the palm of the hand”.

Toby Govan (Edinburgh-1967). The son of artists, at the age of six he moved to Spain, where his parents emigrated attracted by the “light” of Andalusia. He studied at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios Artísticos in Granada, and photography in Madrid, but his real teacher was his father, Douglas Govan, a sculptor, now deceased, who showed him his technique and the magic of “reading stone”, while his mother Ann, a watercolor painter, helped him to see the world as a “composition”.

For eight years he has been sponsored by Sam Benady of the Sammer Gallery in Puerto Banus and interior designer Sandra Bellington, allowing him to flourish as an artist.

There are Toby Govan sculptures in Spain, Germany, France, UK, USA and many other countries around the world. The largest piece, ‘In your arms’, weighing three and a half tons, is one of the four monumental sculptures donated by the artist to the Estepona Town Hall, which have been displayed for years in different public spaces, outdoors, to the delight of passers-by. These works are carved from a single piece of limestone material, with stones mostly from the Ojén quarry and the Guadalmina riverbed. To this collection of works is added the sculpture of municipal ownership ‘Abrazo a la Cultura’, located outside the Padre Manuel Cultural Center.