14 desnudos y más

14 DESNUDOS Y MÁS

Group show

June 19th – July 24th

On June 19, Álvaro Alcázar Arte will present the group exhibition “14 desnudos y más”, a show offering a diverse and renewed perspective on the theme of the nude in art. A variety of techniques and approaches will be explored through the works on display, ranging from realism to abstraction and including sculpture, printmaking and photography. Themes such as identity, sexuality, artificial intelligence and social critique will be addressed. The fourteen participating artists represent a variety of styles, career stages, and nationalities: Simon Edmondson, Kepa Garraza, Jose Cháfer, Antonio Murado, Andreu Alfaro, José Luis Serzo, Julien Spiewak, Berta Llonch, and Sergio de Luz. Also featured are Yolanda Dorda, the duo Ana D & Noora K, Paula Rossell, Rubén Rodrigo, and Juan Francisco Casas— the last five of whom are making their debut with the gallery.

The nude has been a central theme in art history, with its meanings evolving alongside the times and cultural contexts. Examples range from the Paleolithic Venuses dating back 28,000 years, to Renaissance masterpieces such as Botticelli’s Primavera and Michelangelo’s David, through 19th- century provocations like Courbet’s The Origin of the World and Manet’s Olympia, and contemporary explorations by artists like Marina Abramović and Robert Mapplethorpe. The rise of conceptual art, body art, and feminist perspectives has opened up new avenues for exploring the human form in all its complexity.

“14 desnudos y más” celebrates this diversity. Each artist contributes their own interpretation, enriching the ongoing dialogue around this broad and suggestive theme. For instance, in the work of Jaén-born Juan Francisco Casas, nudity and eroticism are almost always present, yet his drawings transcend the “feminine cliché by portraying a strong woman who does as she pleases.” This time, he presents two portraits, both rendered in his signature ballpoint pen technique: one depicts the artist Día Muñoz and the other, the art gallerist Raquel. Kepa Garraza also turns to drawing, reaffirming his interest in using art as a tool for political or social critique. His work depicts an “urban heroine” baring her chest in protest outside a Parisian mosque, and it is part of his New Monumentalism series. José Luis Serzo, from Albacete imbues his Courbet-inspired series with strong eroticism through explicit scenes of a sexual nature and nudes, as seen in the featured drawing.

In a very different style, Andreu Alfaro, who is usually associated with geometric forms, created a series of drawings focused on the human body in the 1980s. One of these drawings is on display in this exhibition, demonstrating a perfect balance between realism and abstraction. Another artist working within abstraction is Rubén Rodrigo, who uses colour as a structural element in his images. Through layering, glazing and juxtaposition, he emulates two famous nudes: Velázquez’s Venus and a male nude by Francis Bacon.

Berta Llonch uses watercolor to create volumes, light and shadow, and modeling the figures in the process. For this exhibition, she moves away from her usual marine themes to present a series of five nude women shown in intimate and even uninhibited poses. Antonio Murado ’s work is more figurative, as seen in a 2009 canvas depicting a sensual female nude. Yolanda Dorda remains true to her expressionist style and bold brushwork, adding freshness and sensuality with two paintings showing fragments of female bodies in lingerie from a liberated and feminine perspective

The exhibition gives special prominence to photography, a medium that is rarely featured in the gallery. Madrid-based photographer Sergio de Luz presents his personal interpretation of the nude in black-and-white photographs characterised by deep blacks and high contrast. Julien Spiewak presents two photographs from his ‘Corps de style’ series, begun in 2005, which incorporates fragments of nude bodies into museum or stately home interiors. These are notable for their meticulous staging.

Mexican artist Ana Lombard and Finnish artist Noora Kulvik have been working together since 2016, united by their shared interest in themes such as the overexploitation of resources and the emergence of AI. They consider these to be vital issues and sometimes address them through the human nude, as in this case. Photographer Paula Rosell presents an image of a woman’s legs reclining on a bed. It’s an everyday scene from which the artist extracts beauty—or as she puts it, “La bellezza è un diritto” (“Beauty is a right”): it’s available to us every day; we just have to pause and look.

Simon Edmondson reveals a different facet of himself by presenting two collages, a medium with which he does not usually work. In one of them, he depicts a female nude using tactile materials such as velvet and ribbon.

Finally, sculptor Jose Cháfer contributes the only three-dimensional piece in the exhibition: a bronze sketch of his Nude Maja, a sculpture that was sold at the last edition of ARCO. Despite its abstraction, the curves and counter-curves clearly evoke the Goya-esque character. For the first time, the sculptor has also tackled printmaking, depicting this same motif.

Galería Álvaro Alcázar CIF: B- 83916163 Saturnino Calleja, 3. 28002 Madrid galeria@galeriaalvaroalcazar.com

In short, ’14 Nudes and More’ resembles an old erotic cabinet, revealing the most intimate and sensual aspects of humanity through secret images and objects. It provides profound and diverse reflections on identity, sexuality and vulnerability. The wide variety of styles and techniques employed serves as a reminder that the nude, in all its forms, remains a subject ripe for exploration, offering a space for freedom and expression — one of the great themes in art history.