Unique

Javier Mayoral’s The Opium Den is a haunting meditation on desire, escape, and oblivion. Painted in stark contrasts of black, white, and gray, the scene depicts a reclining figure with a pipe in hand, dissolving into the surrounding darkness. Hovering above is a dragon-like ouroboros - an ancient symbol of eternity and self-destruction - encircling the void. The sparse details, from the small vessel to the reclining form, emerge like fragments from a dream or hallucination, while the heavy black background envelops the viewer in an atmosphere of mystery and foreboding. Both seductive and unsettling, the work situates Mayoral’s characteristic wit within a darker register, offering a vision of indulgence that is as much about dissolution as it is about desire.