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So far Galería Álvaro Alcázar has created 58 blog entries.

Cristina Babiloni: AQUARIUM

CRISTINA BABILONI – AQUARIUM

Inauguration 12 de septiembre 2024

Cristina Babiloni’s latest exhibition, Aquarium, opens on September 12, 2024, at the Gallery Alvaro Alcazar in Madrid. Babiloni, an artist hailing from Castellón, has previously captivated audiences in New York and Andorra with her individual exhibitions. This new showcase reaffirms her commitment to exploring aquatic themes, even in a city like Madrid, far from the sea.

In Aquarium, Babiloni continues her exploration of marine environments, presenting a thought-provoking and immersive experience. Her work is divided into two distinct yet interconnected parts. The first section features large and medium-format burlap pieces, where Babiloni employs a rich palette of pigments and materials to create evocative underwater scenes and coral reefs. These artworks invite viewers to metaphorically “dive” into the sea, engaging with its depths through intricate textures and vibrant colors. The artist has expanded on her previous techniques, incorporating new ecosystems and richer hues to enhance the visual impact of her work.

On the other side of the gallery, Babiloni presents a novel series of fish casts made from methacrylate, showcasing her innovative approach and experimentation with materials. This use of methacrylate represents a new direction in her practice, adding fresh dimensions to her art and underscoring her ongoing quest for artistic exploration.

Babiloni, who also holds a background in psychology, views her art as a therapeutic tool, aiming to restore mental well-being through the power of admiration. She believes that each painting serves as a vehicle for meditation and natural immersion, merging chromotherapy with visual art to evoke emotional responses. According to Babiloni, her work provides a form of introspection and solace, acting as a balm for the soul.

In her exhibition, Babiloni emphasizes the profound connection between humans and nature. She argues that emotional engagement with her art is crucial, as it fosters a deeper understanding of the natural world—a space of immense strength and beauty that we must strive to protect. Through her use of color, texture, and form, Babiloni recreates aquatic environments that offer a sensory journey, highlighting the delicate interplay of light and shadow, as well as the organic forms that bring her “living entities” to life.

Overall, Aquarium is not just a display of artistic skill but an invitation to reflect on our relationship with nature and find solace in its representation.

Catálogo
Listado de obras

Cristina Babiloni: AQUARIUM2024-09-14T14:43:02+00:00

BAD + 2024

BAD + 2024

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery is once again participating in the new edition of the BAD+ fair in Bordeaux, France. For this occasion, the gallery is presenting a stand featuring the works of various national and international artists.

Sculptures by David Nash, Pim Palsgraaf, and José Cháfer will be accompanied by paintings created by Antonio Murado, Simon Edmondson, Ariel Cabrera, Rebeca Plana, and Rubén Tortosa, among others. With this assembly of works, diverse themes such as nature, leisure, and abstraction will bring life to a stand filled with color.

Nash’s natural elements are cohesively integrated with Cháfer’s ash wood sculpture, whose curves evoke the grooves traced in Wolfgang Flad’s painting. Regarding the paintings, Antonio Murado’s ethereal flowers composed of glazes connect with Simon Edmondson’s transparencies. Edmondson has presented two paintings that pay homage to studios—spaces of introspection and expressiveness for the artist. This is not the only conceptual idea of the stand. With enormous sculptures reflecting on the decay of the modern world, Pim Palsgraaf brings urban ruins to life, creating a contrast between the human and the purity of nature. On the other hand, Rebeca Plana and Rubén Tortosa also explore the conceptual with their work “Debe/haber,” in which language collaborates with abstraction to re-signify concepts. This idea aligns with the work represented by Ariel Cabrera, who transforms reality through a historical and cultural prism to recreate everyday spaces from a new perspective.

In short, our proposal brings together the work of different artists to highlight the expressive and symbolic capacity of each one. The sum of the parts makes our stand a collection of ideas that converge in a visual dialogue, inviting the viewer to explore the multiple layers of meaning present in each work.

Catalogue
List of works
BAD + 20242024-05-31T17:13:57+00:00

Mari Puri Herrero: el color de los días

MARI PURI HERRERO: EL COLOR DE LOS DÍAS

April 23

On April 13th, the Alvaro Alcázar gallery presents the monographic exhibition “El color de los días” (The Color of the Days) by artist Mari Puri Herrero (1942, Bilbao), where the most recent production of this veteran painter is addressed. The exhibition brings together around thirty of her works on paper, immersing us in a world where pigment, nature, and the enigmatic take a protagonist role. Due to her great technical mastery, the artist manages to elevate the paper support to the category of the most refined painting, thus blending drawing and painting into one.

Herrero’s presented work has been created over the past three years and represents a continuity in her extensive career, remaining faithful to her style characterized by constant references to nature, landscape, but also the human figure. Her papers capture images of everyday life that also coexist with the disparity of dreams. References that border on abstraction and are shrouded in a halo of mystery and silence. Mari Puri once again draws from her personal experiences or places such as Menagaray, in Álava, Bilbao or Madrid.

It is in this phantasmagorical universe where the artist turns color and drawing into the main allies of her work. Different shades of blacks, blues, oranges, purples, and bright reds are associated with technique to challenge reality. Giving equal importance to method and form, drawing also contributes to the cause. In this case, the automatism of the technique brings the figures to life and color elevates the works to the sphere of surrealism with expressionist undertones. Herrero once again reveals herself as an excellent draftswoman, paying close attention to detail, from the choice of handmade paper, the theme, and above all, the treatment of drawing. Likewise, the predominantly vertical format of the papers is remarkable, it accentuates the content of the works themselves; tall cypresses, elongated human silhouettes, or small fragments of paper glued as collages, which take on fusiform shapes and seem to rise.

This exhibition is an opportunity to see the work of this artist, as a prelude to the upcoming major retrospective exhibition prepared by the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao.

Biography

Mari Puri is one of the most renowned living artists on the Basque scene. Since her education, she has lived in places like Amsterdam, Paris, or Madrid, although she has never neglected her secluded life in nature. At the age of 17, she moved to Madrid to attend engraving workshops, draw from life at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, and immerse herself in art in the various museums of the capital. In 1966, she received a scholarship from the Diputación de Bizkaia and the Dutch Government to continue her studies in Amsterdam, particularly at the Rijksakademie. After encountering the work of great artists, both ancient and contemporary, her work acquired a more symbolic sense, and after her stay in Paris and her return to Spain, she began an intense exhibition activity, both in painting and engraving. She has continued with long temporary stays in Paris until recently. Whether as a painter, engraver, or sculptor, Mari Puri Herrero has become a notable creator at the national level.

In Madrid, April 2024

Catalogue
List of works
Alicia Chillida’s Text
Mari Puri Herrero: el color de los días2024-04-17T11:13:28+00:00

Rebeca Plana: UNTDELEMN

REBECA PLANA: UNTDELEMN

April 19

The Chirivella Soriano Foundation and the Consorci de Museus de la Comunitat Valenciana are pleased to present the exhibition “Untdelemn,” a showcase inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the artistic and spiritual universe of Valencian artist Rebeca Plana (Albalat de la Ribera, 1976). Under the direction of curator Álvaro Alcázar, this exhibition will be open to the public from April 19 to June 23 at the Palau Joan de Vaeliona, an emblematic space of Valencian civil Gothic architecture.

The exhibition takes its name from “Untdelemn,” a word that, although originating from ancient Romanian refers to the most exquisite oil used in purification rituals. For Rebeca Plana, “Untdelemn” becomes a metaphor for the act of “painting from the soul,” where painting not only calms and heals but also activates her nervous system. The exhibition presents around 60 works, most of which were created recently and especially for this exhibition. These works reflect a vital stage in the artist’s career, marked by biological and mental maturity, as well as personal growth. But it is also a dialogue between different forms of art; music, literature, and sculpture converge in Rebeca’s works, enriching their meaning and depth. The influence of artists such as Franco Battiato, Konstantinos Kavafis, and David Nash is evident throughout the exhibition, adding layers of interpretation to each work.

Rebeca Plana’s distinctive style is characterized by refined abstraction and a palette of subtle colors. Her works are marked by energetic, dynamic, and expressive strokes, revealing a unique combination of premeditation and improvisation. This exhibition represents an evolution in her style, highlighting greater simplicity and essentiality in her work, without losing the depth and intensity that characterize it. This exhibition marks a milestone in her career and represents a celebration of a decade of creativity and artistic exploration. 

About the artist:

Rebeca Plana (Albalat de la Ribera, 1976) graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos in Valencia in 2000. She received Honors in her final degree project specializing in painting. She completed her training at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon and at the Colegio de España in Paris. Since completing her studies, she has participated in artistic residencies and received awards and scholarships such as the Habitat Artistic Scholarship (Castellón City Council – EACC), the Piramidon Residence Scholarship (Barcelona), the O Barco de Valdeorras Foundation Scholarship (Orense), the Picasso Museum Residence Scholarship (Málaga), the Rodríguez Acosta Foundation Scholarship, and awards such as the Senyera Painting Prize of Valencia, the Ateneo Mercantil de Valencia, or the Honorable Mention in the BMW Prize.

Rebeca Plana’s work has also been showcased in solo exhibitions, in museums and galleries, such as the Sala Gallera (Valencia), the Fernando Latorre Gallery (Madrid), or Galería Punto (Valencia), as well as at the Colegio de España in Paris and the Royal Tapestry Factory. She has participated in various group exhibitions in spaces such as the IberCaja Zaragoza, Casa de Vacas Madrid, or the Antonio Pérez Foundation of Cuenca. She also actively participates in fairs alongside the galleries that represent her in Contemporary Art Fairs such as JustMad (Madrid), ARCO (Madrid), and Gante Artfair (Belgium).

Curator’s text
Rebeca Plana: UNTDELEMN2024-04-18T09:39:55+00:00

ARCO 24

ARCO 24

From March 6th to March 10th

The Álvaro Alcázar gallery is once again participating in the new edition of the ARCO fair, as it has been doing since 2006. For this occasion, the gallery proposes a stand divided into three parts:

Firstly, an exterior wall displays the series ‘The Cardinal Virtues’ by Rafael Canogar. As the only living member of the El Paso group (1957-1960), at 88 years old, his legacy continues to earn him great recognition both nationally and internationally. Particularly for this edition, Canogar has created four large paintings – Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, and Prudence – in honor of the virtues mentioned in Plato’s Republic. These paintings also decorates the recently restored Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid.

Secondly, the gallery offers a 65-square-meter stand that unites the work of many artist due to the common theme they follow: erythropsia. This concept refers to a temporary alteration of vision in which  the affected individuals see everything through a reddish filter. Thus, this section aims to immerse the viewer in the experience of seeing “life in red” through the work of these artists. Sculptures such as those crafted by the artist Jose Cháfer, who uses red sequoia wood, Kepa Garraza presenting one of his urban heroes, or the hidden view of San Pedro made by Juan Garaizabal will be exhibited. In the field of painting, works by Jose Luis Serzo, Antonio Murado, Peter Krauskopf, or Cristina Babiloni will also join the red-themed pieces, along with the artwork made by Mari Puri Herrero, Rebeca Plana, and the British artist Simon Edmondson. Most of artist have created works specifically for the occasion. Additionally, we have selected some of the works  made by  the deceased artists  Eduardo Arroyo and Nacho Criado, which  we believe  will  suit the  tones of this particular theme.

Finally, the main stand is complemented by the Solo Show of the sculptor David Nash, who is considered one of the leading artists of British Land Art. For this purpose, the space  and the vertical wooden sculptures will be organized in a manner that resembles or evokes the appearance of what the artist calls a “natural forest” .

Catalogue
List of works
ARCO 242024-04-17T11:17:49+00:00

La Isla Taller

JUAN GOPAR: LA ISLA TALLER

January 25 – March 16

Álvaro Alcázar gallery opens on 25 January, La isla taller, by Juan Gopar, in which the artist from Lanzarote returns to Madrid with a large monographic exhibition, just 30 years after his last show in Madrid, at the Gamarra y Garrigues gallery. This is Gopar’s first solo exhibition in our gallery and with it he joins the list of represented artists. 

The exhibition presents a collection of paintings, sculptures and works on paper created on the island of Lanzarote between 1994 and 2021. These works not only reflect Gopar’s commitment to the art, culture and history of the islands, but also explore the unique intersection between his art and the objects found on the shores, washed up on the ocean currents. The juxtaposition in Gopar’s work between painting and these objects reveals forces of growth, shipwreck and catastrophe.

 

La Isla taller is constructed as a poetic ecosystem in which the real and the creative imagination intertwine their roots in a fascinating symbiosis. As happens with lichens, those organisms that arise from the collaboration between fungi and unicellular algae, and that from minimal units cover vast territories, Gopar’s work brings together the micro and the macro, from the insular shore to the enormous rooms of the cosmos. It is the greatness of the brief, so brilliantly expressed by Juan Ramón Jiménez’s Espacio. The duality of immensity and smallness, an eternal cycle of union and disunion that is always immobile towards the origin. This dynamic of opposites does nothing other than return to the idea that unity is born of duality, a principle that resonates in the ambiguous existence of painting, always suspended between inside and outside, between the eternal and the ephemeral, between its own materiality and the real. “The gods had no more substance than what I have. But here, in La isla taller, the “I” is none other than painting itself. In the huts entitled Metáforas – in Gopar these “architectures” must be understood as “liberated painting” – this idea appears in a very emphatic way: the form is embodied in its own signifier. Manuel Padorno says: “Mine is a beautiful workshop: the island”. 

Living thus reveals itself as an approach towards the centre, towards the stone: everything that happens takes place within a totality – place and time – which is at the same time our consciousness. What happens in us resonates in the spheres and what happens in the spheres vibrates in us. Our eyes are thus the eyes of the cosmos: the eyes with which the cosmos sees itself.What we see is thus the consciousness of the universe. In this rocking we find a dance of our own, the stamp of the rhythm that defines us: between the inner abode and the epicentre of our experience. In the series Walkabout (The Strokes of Song) the small joins the large in an endless resonance: the coloured surface is transformed into depth, it becomes a stellar mirror. The spectator is swayed by this rhythm that is both intimate and universal. A totality where each event, as in the lichen that embraces rocks and trees, flourishes and contributes to the richness of the whole.

La Isla Taller2024-01-25T16:19:36+00:00

Andrei Roiter: Open

Andrei Roiter: OPEN

Opening November 16th 2023

Closing January 2024

On November 16th, Álvaro Álcazar Gallery presents the solo exhibition of Moscow-born artist Andrei Roiter (1960), a show that features around twenty works made in the last few years, including paintings and a sculpture. Twelve years after his solo exhibition at the Fúcares Gallery, the artist returns to Madrid with a major exhibition that will be on view until mid-January 2024. 

Andrei Roiter’s work is a compilation of a whole series of personal experiences, starting from his youth —marked by Soviet totalitarianism— and spanning to the present global, political climate. Issues such as emigration, voluntary exile and a search for self- identity, are present in the artist’s iconographic repertoire, either explicitly or as a symbolic reference. Thus, one of the recent elements that Roiter repeats the most is the rectangle with the circle in the center, as in “Opening” #2, #3 and #4, where the artist is speaking to us of openness and escape. One of his favorite works of his old friend, Ilya Kabakov, is “Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment”, the installation piece that includes a hole in the ceiling of an apartment through which the occupant ejected himself into space. Roiter relates autobiographically to the work, as he himself fled Russia at the end of the 80’s. 

Roiter is also inspired by other artists who interact with spacial boundaries, such as Lucio Fontana and Gordon Matta-Clark, who used empty buildings as a medium to open huge holes in their facades, leaving the emptiness inside. In Roiter’s case, his ruptures illuminate a hidden, metaphysical space behind the canvas. Cardboard or moving boxes (“Yellow Tower”, “Spire”) also frequently appear in his work, sometimes forming crude models of buildings parodying grand, empirical towers such as the Empire State Building and the Kremlin. Architecture is precisely another of his most reiterated themes (“Ivory Tower”), as we must remember that he trained for some years in this discipline. 

From a formal perspective, Andrei Roiter’s work is characterized mainly by his technical mastery and by the austerity that surrounds the forms and the palette, predominantly limited to greens, sepias, reds and browns. These generally earthy, muted colors, underlie the melancholy of the artist, yet there’s a persistent presence of a glowing luminosity. 

The thoughts and feelings Andrei Roiter lays bare in this exhibition, he has pointed out, represent complex universal experiences such as solitude, groundlessness and fragility. The objects in his paintings are symbolic and metaphorical portraits of human aspects, brilliantly executed.

Catalogue
List of works
Andrei Roiter: Open2023-11-20T16:53:06+00:00

Humid Areas: Ariel Cabrera

Humid Areas: Ariel Cabrera

Opening 14th September

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the exhibition Humid areas, a solo show by the Cuban artist Ariel Cabrera Montejo, which features around twenty paintings made in the last few months for this exhibition. It is a derivative of the series that make up his entire artistic career, combining various events related to Cuban memory with the review of traditional male archetypes of power, all with one leitmotiv: pleasure.

Cabrera’s compositions contain a myriad of messages and meanings that are the result of the artist’s imagination. Through a work of reinterpretation and reconstruction of historical documents and archives, closer to a filmmaker than a painter, Cabrera composes what might appear to be a collage between “cut-outs” of black and white photographs and colourful scenes of enjoyment. 

This dualism results in his so-called “neo-historicism” through which Cabrera recreates theatrical scenarios inspired by nineteenth-century events such as the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898). But Ariel’s figures are not the solemn and victorious “manbises” or heroic characters depicted in traditional island paintings; instead they are rather anecdotal heroes, less military and more human: with carnal, playful and sensual desires, far from the traditional military archetype. There is no concern for historical accuracy and fidelity, as the protagonists of his paintings are inspired by real people and stories he has encountered in the course of his research. What we find is in any case a mockery of the formalities of history, always a sensitive subject for the political and propagandistic forces of various regimes.

Ariel’s work also has a very personal touch, as it is underlain by the artist’s interest in and knowledge of the history of his native country, as well as his past as a collector of small 19th-century American and European tables, archives, old newspapers and photographs, travel books, his great passion for Italian cinema, and his training in the field of stage design, all of which are coherently transferred to his painting. These elements serve as a formal resource for the artist to develop a style that evokes the impressionist painting of the end of the 19th century, based on rich chromaticism, contrasts of light and colour and different planes. This union between plausible historical reconstructions and archetypes that refer to idyllic scenarios of heroism and eroticism gives life to an idyllic set suspended in time. As in the cinema, everything intertwines in the artist’s head.

BIO
Ariel Cabrera Montejo (1982, Camagüey, Cuba) was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Camagüey and at the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, Cuba. He currently lives and works in New York. Since 2014 he has had numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the Americas and Europe. His works are located in both public and private collections in Cuba, the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Catalogue coming soon
Humid Areas: Ariel Cabrera2023-07-27T16:00:16+00:00

Three different ways: Udo Nöguer, Antonio Murado, Jesús Guerrero

Three different ways: Udo Nöguer, Antonio Murado, Jesús Guerrero

22 June-22 July

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents “Three Different Ways: Udo Nöger, Antonio Murado, Jesús Guerrero, a group exhibition on display from June 22 until the end of July. The exhibition brings together three artists with a distinct pictorial approach; the Galician Antonio Murado, the german Udo Nöger and the Venezuelan Jesús Guerrero. Through 26 paintings on canvas, board, plaster or paper, the exhibition reveals the parallels and differences offered by each artist, each one with their own thematic and aesthetic contribution but converging in a common artistic language; abstraction.

Antonio Murado (Lugo, Spain, 1964) currently lives in New York. The work shown here is representative of the different styles with which he used to express himself throughout his extensive career, as in the case of his “Marañas y Redes”, (“tangles” or nets”). Murado investigates, among other things, transparencies and explores his interest in nature through mediums such as canvas, wood and aluminum- and experiments with the behavioral properties of paint and varnishes.

Udo Nöger (Enger, Germany, 1961), who works between the USA and Switzerland, is known as the “light artist”, for capturing light effects and movement through eminently minimalist compositions. Apart from the abstract representations of his early works created on canvas and handmade paper, which are reminiscent of cave paintings or pictograms, Nöger is especially known for his monochrome works in shades of grey, which emulate a light of their own. The artist achieves this effect by spreading several strips of cloth or canvas on a frame, which in turn have been previously painted or cut.

For the Venezuelan Jesús Guerrero (Tovar, Venezuela, 1965), this is his first exhibition in Spain, where he emigrated motivated by the critical social and economic situation in his native country. Guerrero began his relationship with art as a child and since then he has moved in the field of abstraction. His work is characterized by historical revisionism, with an important influence from European avant-garde movements such as de Stijl, Russian constructivism or Minimalism. Guerrero experiments with materials such as zinc, acrovinyl and waxed enamel. “The human figure was a challenge for me, but afterwards I felt that I had nothing more to say with the figure, I was never able to find the psychology of the character as a subject” says the artist.

The exhibition offers visitors a wide variety of works in different formats and materials and presents three ways of understanding painting, through the exploration of light, colour, geometry and matter, which apparently do not have much in common but which, nevertheless, appear to be in a perfect dialogue with each other.

Catálogo
List of works
CV Antonio Murado
CV Udo Nöger
Three different ways: Udo Nöguer, Antonio Murado, Jesús Guerrero2023-06-20T11:52:04+00:00

Jose Cháfer – Cuerpo y Alma

Jose Cháfer

Cuerpo y Alma

20 April – 10 June 2023

On April 20, Álvaro Alcázar Gallery opens Cuerpo y Alma, a solo exhibition where artist Jose Cháfer introduces his latest works. The exhibition presents around thirty unpublished sculptures, most of them unique pieces made of stone, bronze and wood. Furthermore, the artist has incorporated natural materials which he had barely used in his previous works, such as walnut, black poplar and Calatorao marble. The show includes small and large format sculptures, made in direct carving or bentwood, as well as suspended works, free-standing or wall-mounted.

For his first great solo exhibition, Cháfer has felt the need to share a conceptual aspect of his work, hence its title Cuerpo y Alma (Body and Soul). Starting from a previous style, starring sculptures of infinite trajectories which are the soul and essence of his work, Cháfer now takes a step further, incorporating into his pieces a sort of “skin”, turning them into authentic “bodies”. Bodies that are linked to solidity, earthly and mortal, in opposition to the average features which characterize the soul, such as lightness, infinity or eternity. 

Although Cháfer wants to transmit with his works the personal concept that ” there is no body without soul”, this exhibition has also been a technical challenge for the artist, as he now explores new forms in his creative process to continue advancing in his studies.

Beyond the symbolic aspect, in formal terms Cháfer remains faithful to one of the elements that have most attracted his attention since the beginning of his career as a sculptor: the curves, continuous lines that constantly change direction. This time, however, starting from sculptures based on the exploration of paths and voids, he now investigates concepts such as mass and tensions, which particularly attract his attention because they allow him to understand how they are capable of fulfilling a space that used to be empty.

During the exhibition, it will become clear, through the presence of natural materials and the need to give body to the soul of his works, how Cháfer maintains a particular connection with the environment, which has always been fundamental in his own narrative.

Catalogue
List of works
Curriculum
Jose Cháfer – Cuerpo y Alma2023-05-19T11:35:28+00:00

BAD 2023

BAD 2023

Bordeaux,  4 – 7 May 2023

For its second edition, Álvaro Alcázar Gallery will participate once again at BAD Fair (Bordeaux + Art + Design), presenting a selection of works by various of its Spanish and international artists (Rafael Canogar, Peter Krauskopf, Juan Garaizabal, David Nash, Nigel Hall, Kepa Garraza, Antonio Murado, Eduardo Arroyo).

Dossier
BAD 20232023-05-05T15:13:56+00:00

Abstract exhibition

ABSTRACT – John Holland Gallery, Lepe, Huelva

1 April – 26 May

From the 1st of April to the 26th of May, Alvaro Alcázar is curating the exhibition Abstract at John Holland Gallery in Lepe, Huelva.

The path of abstraction, beyond the canonical European avant-garde of the 20th century, has led artists to express themselves by experimenting different techniques and materials. What this exhibition shows is that there is a multiplicity of ways of approaching the concept of abstraction, some focused on space and light, others on the technique itself, or simply pursuing a particular aesthetic. But beyond formal pretensions, most of the artists in this exhibition endow their works with a deep content, paintings and sculptures that speak to us about their author’s feelings, of his relationship with nature, or of his own existence. 

It is a heterogeneous mix of artists, all represented by the gallery, who work in different disciplines, such as sculpture in the case of David Nash or Nigel Hall, painting on canvas in the case of Rebeca Plana, board for Guillem Nadal, or paper for Cristina Babiloni. We also find heterogeneity in the nationalities of the artists, as the Spanish artists are joined by British artists such as Nash or Hall, or German artists like Wolfgand Flad and Krauskopf. Nor are the different careers of our artists uniform, since authors such as Rafael Canogar, Murado or Edmondson have decades of experience in the Spanish and international art scene, while others such as José Cháfer or Rebeca Plana, or Cristina Babiloni represent the gallery’s firm commitment to emerging art.

Catalogue
List of works
Abstract exhibition2023-03-31T10:43:44+00:00

Abstract

ABSTRACT

1 April – 26 May

From the 1st of April to the 26th of May, Alvaro Alcázar is curating the exhibition Abstract at John Holland Gallery in Lepe, Huelva.

The path of abstraction, beyond the canonical European avant-garde of the 20th century, has led artists to express themselves by experimenting different techniques and materials. What this exhibition shows is that there is a multiplicity of ways of approaching the concept of abstraction, some focused on space and light, others on the technique itself, or simply pursuing a particular aesthetic. But beyond formal pretensions, most of the artists in this exhibition endow their works with a deep content, paintings and sculptures that speak to us about their author’s feelings, of his relationship with nature, or of his own existence. 

It is a heterogeneous mix of artists, all represented by the gallery, who work in different disciplines, such as sculpture in the case of David Nash or Nigel Hall, painting on canvas in the case of Rebeca Plana, board for Guillem Nadal, or paper for Cristina Babiloni. We also find heterogeneity in the nationalities of the artists, as the Spanish artists are joined by British artists such as Nash or Hall, or German artists like Wolfgand Flad and Krauskopf. Nor are the different careers of our artists uniform, since authors such as Rafael Canogar, Murado or Edmondson have decades of experience in the Spanish and international art scene, while others such as José Cháfer or Rebeca Plana, or Cristina Babiloni represent the gallery’s firm commitment to emerging art.

Abstract2023-03-31T10:05:33+00:00

David Nash – Recent Works

David Nash

Recent Works

26 January – march 2023

On January 26th, Gallery Alvaro Alcázar will present a solo show dedicated to the British artist David Nash (b. 1945, UK), an exhibition that addresses the most recent production of this renowned artist based in Wales. The show presents different disciplines, highlighting the sculptural work, both in wood and in bronze and iron, as well as drawing on paper. The 24 works presented here, in small and large formats, are arranged inside the gallery in an apparently chaotic way that inevitably reminds us of a natural forest.

David Nash, with a career spanning over 40 years, is considered one of the main representatives of British Land Art. Wood; in particular the tree itself, is his main working material. For Nash, using the tree entails enormous symbolism.  Due to its density, growth and proliferation, the tree finds a parallel with life itself,  and its structure, made up of roots, trunk and branches, allude to three worlds; the subterranean, the terrestrial and the celestial. Nash investigates the morphology of the tree, the natural characteristics of its wood, as well as the mutations produced by the hand of man. To this end, the artist has been trained as a tree expert, studying the morphology of each species he works with, mainly redwoods, oaks, beech wood or maple wood. The wooden works presented here give a good example of this and, in fact, they only come from wood from trees that have fallen naturally or have been felled due to age or disease. From these felled trees emerge forms such as eggs, (Opened Scaled Egg), columns (Squark Column or Lined Beach Column), domes, spheres and pyramids (Flare), some of his most characteristic forms.

In addition to wood, the exhibition presents half a dozen sculptures in bronze, a material that Nash began to work with in the 1990s and whose treatment again alludes to wood, as in King and Queen III, Red Column and Black Cairn. The use of this material was motivated by the artist’s desire to preserve forms for posterity without interfering with the physical condition of the original wooden objects. Nash also appreciates the material’s capacity for transformation when heated and melted. Iron, also present in this exhibition, is formed by one of nature’s most elemental processes and is extracted at high temperatures, something which is highly appreciated by the artist.

Furthermore, charcoal has played an important role in Nash’s artistic work since the early 1980s, whether in wooden pieces that have been charred or in bronze sculptures that allude to the wooden ones, or, as in this case, in the drawings that accompany the sculptures. Drawing has always been an important element in David Nash’s production and is also used to document his entire creative process. His technique consists of applying the raw pigment directly to the paper, incorporating halos of colour around the main form. Although charcoal black predominates, he sometimes incorporates other tones from nature, which allude, for example, to the changing colour of oak leaves depending on the month or the season of the year, as in Oak Leaves Through May, where he goes from orange to yellow to bright green.

This exhibition is a unique opportunity to approach the work of an international artist of such importance, whose work has not been exhibited monographically in our country for more than half a decade and where the monumentality of the works on display will leave no one indifferent.

Catálogo
Listado de obras
David Nash – Recent Works2023-01-25T11:26:43+00:00

ARCO 2023

ARCO 2023

Madrid,  february, 2023

The Álvaro Alcázar gallery participates, once again since its foundation in 2006, at the new edition of the ARCO fair. On this occasion, the proposal revolves around a central work, “The Best Horse in the World”, painted by Eduardo Arroyo in 1965 and which winks at the present day, due to the recent death of Queen Elizabeth II of England. It is an impressing equestrian portrait through which Arroyo enacts, with the great irony that characterizes him, as an old-fashioned court painter, ridiculing who has exercised dominion over the British people. The painter also makes fun of the propagandistic function of art, which has tried to picture political leaders throughout history.

The other pieces exhibited are all based on the tonalities of this main work. This year, the gallery has decided to give special prominence to sculpture, a strong presence category in this exhibition. These works range from small format, as in the case of Kepa Garraza, who has converted in three dimensions one of his famous “demonstrators”, or Mari Puri Hierro, who once again displays the “Blue Bilbao” in a bronze sculpture. Another bronze sculpture is the monumental one by David Nash, one of the most relevant protagonists of British Land Art. The intense red and the verticality of the figure stand out against the horizontality and sinuosity of the work of José Cháfer, who has made for this occasion a unique piece in solid birch wood. Another sculptor, Juan Garaizabal, experiments new techniques in “Fenêtre D’Ainay”, a window fragment inspired by the above-mentioned French château. Lastly, the work of Andreu Alfaro, one of the great sculptors of the second half of the 20th century and precursor of Spanish minimalism, is the finishing touch to the list of artists presented by the gallery in this edition.

Along with the sculptures, the stand is dotted with numerous paintings, mostly in small format.  This year the great new feature is the Cuban painter Ariel Cabrera, whose work can be admired during the monographic exhibition that the gallery is going to dedicate to him at the end of March. Cabrera is joined by another figurative painter, José Luis Serzo, an excellent illustrator, who presents an erotic drawing on a metal plate. Guillem Nadal, usually attached to abstraction, also joins figuration with a panel from his Miralls series, representing a skull. The very opposite happens for Simon Edmondson, who has chosen on this occasion to move his painting to abstraction and opt for an intense chromatic range. Rafael Canogar, meanwhile, presents an acrylic on methacrylate in black and white, typical of the artist’s last period. The color blue is the common feature between the work of the Valencian artist Rebeca Plana and the German Peter Krauskopf, the first by using expressive brushstrokes and the second by focusing on the process and materiality of the painting. Another great artist, Nacho Criado, a pioneer in Spanish conceptual art, makes his particular tribute to Rothko. Finally, two highly acclaimed artists, Luis Canelo and Antonio Murado, focus on organic paintings.

In parallel to the stand, the gallery presents a Solo Project by Cristina Babiloni, whose work centers on the theme of the sea, a clear reference to the theme chosen by ARCO for this year’s edition. For Babiloni, painting is a way of expressing her concern for the degradation of the oceans by human action. The seabed is a constant in his production, as it can be seen in the works presented.

List of Works
Catalogue / Dossier
Solo Project by Cristina Babiloni
ARCO 20232023-03-31T10:54:13+00:00

Kepa Garraza: “Nuevo monumentalismo. We just want to set the world on fire”

KEPA GARRAZA:

NUEVO MONUMENTALISMO. WE JUS WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE

November 3rd, 2022 – January 12th, 2023 

The opening of our next exhibition will take place on November 3rd. We will present the new exhibition of Kepa Garraza that revolves around his two new projects New monumentalism and We just want to set the world on fire. Both series present a fictitious reality that invites the viewer to stop and reflect and to question, on the one hand, the nature of the monument, its raison d’être and its usefulness, and on the other, how social conflicts are currently represented and the role played by the media.

New Monumentalism is his most recent project. It invites the viewer to reflect on the function of the public monument within the urban environment, as well as to ask questions related to the representation of power and authority in our collective imagination. To this end, he has devised a game of substitution that invites the viewer to rethink concepts related to the very nature of the monument.

We just want to set the world on fire is a series that emerged as a consequence of the wave of protests that swept the world after the lifting of restrictions following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. These protests were widespread and seemingly spontaneous. A wave of indignation and anger that spread unchecked to all corners of the globe. Revolts caused by the widespread impoverishment of large sectors of the world’s population and the ineffectiveness of many governments to take care of their most basic needs.

Catalogue / Dossier
List of works
Kepa Garraza: “Nuevo monumentalismo. We just want to set the world on fire”2022-11-07T09:09:25+00:00

ESTAMPA 2022

 13th – 16th October 2022

Stand #5C03

Alvaro Alcazar gallery is once again participating in the Estampa Fair, held in Madrid from 13th to 16th October. For this edition, 17 artworks have been selected and will be located at stand #5C03.

Among the artists present are Cristina Babiloni, who through her painting Zale (2020) immerses us in her oceanic world full of life, Peter Krauskopf, with his abstract artwork in which he shows his mastery of light and colour, Guillem Nadal, who makes us follow with the eyes those hypnotic grooves with which he recreates the landscapes of the mind, José Luis Serzo, with a select choice from his series Las Tentaciones de Courbet, Kepa Garraza, who makes us reflect on the representation of the Power in occidental culture, Mari Puri Herrero, who invites us to enter her dreamlike world in which nature predominates, and the british artist Simon Edmondson, with his River Dream (2018-2022), through which, with his expressionist language, he takes us back to a nostalgic past.

There will also be sculptures by the artists Nacho Criado, with his minimalist piece Homenaje a Rothko (1970), José Cháfer with his famous wooden sculptures through which he tries to reach a point of balance and movement, and Juan Garaizabal, with his duo of sculptures À moi (2022) and À toi (2022) in which the different materials mastered by the artist are fused. 

The guest artists are Andrei Roiter, who uses found and discarded objects to create poetic paintings full of meaning, Matthew Benedict, an artist who moves within realist figuration and who on this occasion brings us his iconic Witch Hazel (2007) and, finally, Jorge Barbi, whose sculptural pieces have been conceived through objects found in the countryside.

List of works
Catalogue / Dossier
ESTAMPA 20222022-10-14T09:43:34+00:00

Art on Paper 2022

6th – 9th October

Stand #45

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery participates for the first time in the third edition of the Art on Paper Fair held in Brussels from 6th to 9th October. Located at Stand #45, you will find the 25 main works of this fair. Made in different techniques, all of them on paper.

The gallery’s artists present are Eduardo Arroyo, with his famous work inspired by Carmen Amaya and the episode that took place at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, Rebeca Plana, with a small section of her abstract series representing the 12 months of the year, Kepa Garraza, with his striking images that make us reflect on the representation of power in occidental culture, José Luis Serzo, with his strong symbolic and timeless images, and Ariel Cabrera, who recently joined the gallery’s staff and presents us with scenes in which he mixes History and fiction in 19th century Cuba.

List of works
Catalogue / Dossier
Art on Paper 20222022-10-11T08:32:12+00:00

KIAF SEOUL 2022

2 – 5 of September 2022

Stand# S11

The Alvaro Alcázar Gallery presents in this edition of Kiaf Seoul some works by the artist of the Rafael Canogar Gallery.

The origin of the work exhibited in this fair is to be found in 2020, coinciding with the confinement that the artist spent at his home on the coast of southern Spain. There, with almost no materials, he began to explore with different supports acquired almost randomly over the Internet. One of them was acetate plastic, which resulted in paintings with a one- or two-tone paper base, with a sheet of acetate laid on top, on which the artist traces a more matteric horizontal line. 

This model, created with paper and acetate, he later took it to large format by using methacrylate, where the artist works on the front and back. But this aesthetic also carries a strong symbolic charge, as for him it represents landscapes of sky-earth and earth-air, where the imprint of man is evident through the brushstrokes.

All of Canogar’s work of the last two years follows this same line, showing how the artist, at 86 years of age, has been able to renew himself. The painter, who began his career at the end of the 1950s as a founding member of the Grupo el Paso, returns here to the search for essentiality that moved abstract expressionism and informalism at the time. He has recently emphasised his desire to return to working with minimal elements in order to enhance his radical nature, as he did at the height of the Spanish avant-garde. He thus returns to his origins, closing the circle he began to trace back in the 1950s.

List of works
Catalogue/ Dossier
KIAF SEOUL 20222022-11-07T12:58:10+00:00

Peter Krauskopf “Shadowpieces”

APERTURA MADRID GALLERY WEEKEND 2022

SHADOWPIECES

8  – 11 Septiembre 2022

Shadowpieces is an exhibition of works spanning the past three years of the abstract painter Peter Krauskopf’s practice. Instead of presenting a concluded body of paintings, the artist has opted for a conscious confrontation of subjects he deals with in his oeuvre. In earlier works, dense forms and seemingly computer-generated gradients illuminate or obscure each other, manipulating a central motif of painting itself. Newer canvasses are testament to a more conceptual interrogation on the character of color and its depths: the luscious, thickly applied oil colors are successively layered, only to be unearthed again by the painter with formal precision. Peter Krauskopf’s pictorial cosmos unfolds in the tension between the virtually algorithmic control he wields over his craft and the unpredictable nature inherent in his medium. 

Shadowpieces refers to the spaces of light and dark left behind by Krauskopf in his works: his technique creates fields from which light appears to seep, and others into which it seems to plunge. However, the title does not hide the artist’s intuitive preference for the shadow as an agent. With their plasticity, Krauskopf’s paintings inescapably assign one side or the other to the space in front of them. Most of the time, the painter — and later the viewer — is cast into a position from which the light appears to emanate from beyond the canvas. 

Peter Krauskopf’s works are abstract, but the non-figurative is constantly fed by the artist’s everyday experiences. Through painting, his intuitions return to reality as genuine images. To complicate the frontier between abstraction and fiction is an intentional choice in this process of reconstruction. The same holds true for the short texts, which accompany certain works in the exhibition and relate personal experiences. The accounts of the situations are clearly his, but did they really occur the way he describes them? Instead of trying to explain the paintings, the texts pose a question. A question about the realness of storytelling, and the realness of the storyteller; a question about the realness of painting, and the realness of the painter.

List of works
Catalogue/ Dossier
Peter Krauskopf “Shadowpieces”2024-07-22T08:43:58+00:00

Arte Santander 2022

16 – 20 of  july 2022

Rebeca Plana – A year from Santander

BOOTH# 26

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents in this edition of Arte Santander a series of 12 works made by the artist Rebeca Plana over the last 12 months. The origin of this project dates back to the last edition of the fair, in July 2021, when the artist visited our stand. There it was agreed that she would be the gallery’s bet for the next edition and the project was defined: “A year from Santander”. The artist has produced 12 works, one each month to be presented in July 2022.

This series that we present here responds to this idea. It consists of twelve works made in mixed media on paper that respond to the marked style of the artist. Works where the protagonists, the colour and the line arranged on plain backgrounds reveal numerous emotional perceptions. They are works of a markedly abstract character, sometimes calligraphic, which combine elements of structured composition with a savage and improvisational atmosphere, taking them towards the historical patriarchy of abstract expressionism.

List of works
Catalogue/ Dossier
Arte Santander 20222022-07-15T10:51:51+00:00

BAD + Bordeaux 2022

7 – 10 of July 2022

Booth # R+1 36 Hangar 4

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery participates in the first edition of the BAD + Bordeaux Fair, from 7 to 10 July in Bordeaux. On this occasion, artists represented by the Gallery will be present at Stand R+1 36, combining small and large sizes.

In the sculptural field, Spanish artists such as Jose Cháfer, Mari Puri Herrero and Juan Garaizabal will be in the exhibition. There will also be the painting of the German Peter Krauskopf with his “overpainting” pieces and the great representative of Spanish art Rafael Canogar, with his works on methacrylate.

Finally, there will be two works by Eduardo Arroyo with his unmistakable fly and a painting with his characteristic literary inspiration.

List of works
Catalogue/ Dossier
BAD + Bordeaux 20222022-07-07T09:07:19+00:00

Comunidad – Collective exhibition

COMUNIDAD

May 26th – July 21st 2022

On 26 May, Gallery Alvaro Alcázar gallery presents the group exhibition Community, which can be visited until 21 July. The exhibition addresses different perspectives of the vast concept of Community, ranging from an intimate and individualistic vision, to a much more collective approach, which presents a social group with common characteristics. The exhibition presents 17 works in different techniques, sizes and medium by 16 different artists, all of them linked by a common connection, the concept of community in its different approaches; through cities such as New York, buildings, people, symbols or landscapes. 

Among the participating artists, it stands out the presence of artists from the gallery, as in the case of Rafael Canogar with one of his most recent methacrylates, Simon Edmondson with an unpublished oil on canvas or Kepa Garraza who shows us a representation of his series Just want to set the world on fire. Cristina Babiloni attracts attention with an imposing 4m high polyptych representing the seabed. Equally noteworthy is the presence of Guillem Nadal with his Project for an Island or the recently added to the gallery’s list of artists, Jose Cháfer, with his first bronze sculpture. Eduardo Arroyo presents a stone sculpture that refers to the delusional story of Carmen Amaya during her stay at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York, which was precisely one of the most famous themes in the artist’s career.

Also noteworthy is the contribution of invited artists, such as the Galician artist Jorge Barbi, this time with sculptural works that, as is usual in his production, are made from objects found in the countryside. The artist Andreu Alfaro presents an emblematic sculpture that embodies the goddess Aphrodite. Photography is represented on the one hand by the Sevillians Paz Juristo and Anuca Aísa, the first with the image of a New York skyscraper and the second with a work that is part of her “subsuelos” series. On the other hand, the French photographer Julien Spiewak presents a work from his “Corps de Style” series, where, as usual, a naked body appears next to a fragment of an interior, in this case a column, which reminds us of the mentioned Aphrodite of Alfaro. The painter Montserrat Gómez-Osuna also treats an urban scene, a building, a structure that is difficult to identify and disturbing, on acrylic board.

Lastly, we should also point out the work of foreign artists, such as Matthew Benedict, with his iconic “Hazel Witch”, or the Russian Andrei Roiter, who has sent a large-format canvas representing cardboard boxes. Finally, the French painter Jude Castel, with his particular mastery of the ballpoint pen, has made two works expressly for this exhibition within the series of urban memories. With all this, we are facing an exhibition with first-rate artists and a great diversity of genres with no apparent relationship, but under which a common concept underlies: that of community.

Catalogue / Dossier
List of works
Comunidad – Collective exhibition2022-07-15T08:47:02+00:00

Las tentaciones de Courbet by Jose Luis Serzo

José Luis Serzo – ‘Las tentaciones de Courbet’

March 24th – May 21st

From Thursday 24 March, the Alvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the solo exhibition of the artist José Luis Serzo, who is, in the words of the historian Juan Manuel Bonet, “one of the most powerful voices of figuration today”. The exhibition, which includes paintings, sculptures and installations, can be visited until mid-May. 

José Luis Serzo (Albacete 1977) returns with a new series that promises to be one of the most subversive and disturbing of his career. Courbet’s temptations could be the life we do not dare to live: the people we want to merge with or the places we want to go despite the terror of throwing ourselves into the void. José Luís Serzo (Albacete, 1977) uses the painter Gustav Courbet as an excuse to take us to a stage where pleasure, eroticism and guilt dance; a pictorial and sculptural daydream that shows us the world without any qualms or filters. From Courbet’s dreams and fears imagined by Serzo, we are witnesses to a study of eroticism linked to fantasy, long banished from the sex we practice in this omnipantal society. In this exhibition, Serzo studies sexuality lived as a game and approaches the female anatomy with an almost frightening authority; bodies that are landscapes, postures that are the stellar movement of the universe. She fills them with palpitating iconographies, masks of death, flowers, eroticised garlic and a sea of crimson curtains that seem to us like skirts towards the madness of feeling, losing our senses in the process. And so he tells us that to live intensely is also to approach death. 

Lidón Sancho Ribés, art critic and writer. 

Short biography and CV:

José Luis Serzo is a multidisciplinary artist who, through his paintings, drawings, photographs, objects, installations and literature, unifies different topics where the imaginary and the reality take shape in an original way in a mise-en-scène, creating exhibition-stories and allowing to exploit different disciplines. He began his studies of Humanities in Albacete, to later study Art in Toledo, however, he finished his studies in Madrid, where he had several exhibitions from very early on.

Some of his best known series are ‘Post Show’, ‘El fantástico vuelo del hombre cometa’, ‘Thewelcome’, ‘Los sueños de I Ming’ or ‘Los Señores del Bosque’. He has participated in exhibitions in museums, art centres, galleries and fairs around the world, such as in Munich, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Buenos Aires, among others.Serzo has also engage into the world of cinema producing a short film called ‘Archimétrica’, which has won several international awards between 2020 and 2021.

List of pieces

Catalogue of the exhibition

CV

Las tentaciones de Courbet by Jose Luis Serzo2022-03-29T09:40:41+00:00

ARCO 2022 February 23-27

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery is once again participating in the new edition of the ARCO 40+1 Fair, where recent works by several of the gallery’s national artists will be shown, such as Kepa Garraza with his new protest series We just want to set the world on fire, Rebeca Plana and Cristina Babiloni, also with recent work. Another artist from Madrid, Jose Cháfer, represents the sculptural section of the exhibition. In a more material sense, there is a work by Guillem Nadal, included in the series ‘Projecte per a una illa’, a project that is currently on display at the Gallery until the beginning of March. The presence of the work of Mari Puri Herrero in a Solo Project, with her sculptures of Heads in the characteristic “Bilbao Blue”, in an adjoining space, at stand 7A16B, should be highlighted.

Eduardo Arroyo’s imposing work Dichoso Quien como Ulises ha hecho un largo viaje is framed within the framework of the centenary of the publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses, coinciding also with the publication of Ulysses illustrated by the artist. Another of the iconic pieces taking part is the sculpture Corkscrew, by Nacho Criado, a leading exponent of Spanish conceptual art in the second half of the 20th century. The presence of Rafael Canogar also stands out with his paintings on methacrylate, in which he investigates for the first time with this material as a support, infusing the works with a strong symbolic charge.

Finally, the international note is provided by Simon Edmondson and a sample of his new series Silver linings.

 

List of works

ARCO 2022 February 23-272022-02-21T10:13:12+00:00

Guillem Nadal – Recent works

GUILLEN NADAL – Recent works

January – March 2022

The Alvaro Alcazar Gallery presents from January 21 the monographic exhibition of the Majorcan artist Guillem Nadal. The exhibition includes a total of sixteen pieces made in recent months, in large and small format, for which the painter has used paper, board and canvas as supports. Guillem Nadal retakes for this exhibition his “Projecte per a una illa”, a series started in 2016 and which is, without a doubt, one of the valued projects within his extensive career. The works exhibited here, like all the project, stand out for their great gesturality, conferred by the artist’s creative process. Nadal works with his hands, plowing the canvas, producing furrows, textures; literally introducing himself into the work. The result is a game of light and shadow that invites not only to see the paintings from different points of view, but also generates in the spectator an inevitable attraction to touch the paintings. Nadal’s characteristic monochromatism, limited to a palette of whites, blacks, and grays, is altered on this occasion by the novel introduction of purple tones, which for the artist are nothing more than part of the process of “sedimentation”, as he defines it, the result of chance in the process of creating the painting. Guillem Nadal’s artistic production includes different series, where the artist projects fragments of himself, different attitudes, or feelings; this is the case of “Miralls” or “El Paisatge de la memòria”, thus constituting his “Projecte per a una illa” a small part of this extensive production.

The works presented here show the artistic maturity of their author, understanding them within the totality of the project and not in solitary. From a formal point of view, Nadal moves in the language of abstraction, creating curved forms, under which underlies the idea of the island. Island as a sentimental journey, as a metaphor for life, as a path that takes you back to the starting point and finally, to the possibility of building your own island. Paradoxically, an island that does not refer to the place where Nadal was born and lives but has much deeper meanings. This is his particular way of joining and reinventing the long tradition of Majorcan landscape painting, which reached its highest peaks in the 40s, the difference is that Nadal, recreates the landscapes of the mind, referring to the poetics of this genre.  

 

List of pieces

Catalogue of works

Guillem Nadal – Recent works2022-01-28T16:57:32+00:00

Arroyo and (some of) his favorite characters

From November 18th to December Alvaro Alcázar gallery presents the solo exhibition “Arroyo and (some of) his favorite characters”. Eduardo Arroyo is one of the most important Spanish artists on the international scene and his painting played a fundamental role in the postwar and later Spanish scene, being the greatest exponent of so-called figurative realism.

Álvaro Alcázar gallery offers its space to give life to the imaginative and vital universe of the painter, through a selection of some of the main characters that obsessed the artist during his long career. The exhibition has been structured around a selection of eight main themes, which has undoubtedly been the most arduous task of the entire project, given the enormous repertoire of hobbies and characters that surrounded the artist’s life. These are: Eduardo with his self-portraits, Tío Pepe, deshollinadores, entre pintores, JMBW, moscas, James Joyce and José Bergamín. Most of these themes derive from his passion for literature, art or lived experiences, which is why they contain numerous readings and metaphors, turning them into authentic painted chronicles. It is therefore a narration of his experiences, dressed in the irony and critical sense that always characterized the work of Eduardo Arroyo.

This exhibition brings together around thirty works, in techniques such as painting, collage, sculpture, drawing, photography or engraving, made by Arroyo from the end of the 50s, until 2018 and therefore, a reflection of the different styles that the artist went through, from a naturalistic language, through pointillism, pop-art and even cubism. This is a unique opportunity to see together some of Eduardo’s most representative works on these topics, including some of them being shown to the public for the first time. This exhibition has carried out together with the collaboration of his family and close friends, who wanted to pay him their particular tribute.

 

List of works

Arroyo and (some of) his favorite characters2021-11-24T16:25:34+00:00