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ESTAMPA 21-24 Octubre 2021

From October 21-24th 2021, Álvaro Alcázar Gallery will participate in the next edition of Estampa Art Fair, booth 3B26A.

Among the selection of artists for this edition, we present Guillem Nadal with two recent pieces of his skull series. Cristina Babiloni presents one of his marine materic paintings, which shows her concern for oceans and corals. The German artist Wolfgang Flad presents two spray painted and carved plywoods. Jorge Barbi, through his Cábaco Z, plays with chance and the passing of time through found woods. 

In addition, we present three pieces by the new gallery artist Jose Chafer. In his sculptures, he focuses on the investigation of visual weights, tensions and the multiple ways possible to reach the point of balance and movement.

List of works 

 

ESTAMPA 21-24 Octubre 20212021-11-26T09:53:37+00:00

Rafael Canogar: Origen

Gallery Álvaro Alcázar presents, on occasion of this new edition of Arte Madrid Apertura Origin, an exhibition with the latest works by Rafael Canogar. It is a representative sample of the works painted during lockdown and months afterwards. The paintings have been made on a material hitherto unprecedented in Canogar’s career; methacrylate. 

 

The use of this material conditions the aesthetics of the works exhibited here, which are mostly vertical paintings with one or two color fields applied on the reverse and crossed on the obverse by thick material strokes. The methacrylate transparency allows painting on both sides and, according to the painter, it allows becoming active the empty space between the two surfaces. Canogar also infuses them with a strong symbolic charge, since for him, they represent landscapes of heaven-earth and earth-air, where man’s imprint is evident through the brushstrokes. 

 

Rafael Canogar, who began his career in the late 1950s as a founding member of the Grupo El Paso, takes up again the search for essentiality that moved the abstract expressionism and informalism at that moment. The artist has recently highlighted his willingness to return to working with minimal elements in order to enhance his radicalism, as he did in times of the Spanish avant-garde. Thus, he returns to his Origin, closing the circle that began to trace back in the 50s. 

 

Finally, through this exhibition the painter continues his assertion to recover the role of painting as an essential genre, thanks to its capacity to communicate emotions, exciting us or making us vibrate. For the artist, painting has lost relevance in favor of other genres due to the conception of art as a merely consumer good.

 

Listado de obras

 

3D exhibition *

 

*Thanks to the collaboration of Arte Global, Red Collectors and Idealista.

Rafael Canogar: Origen2021-11-26T09:56:15+00:00

¿Los últimos cuadros que pintó Velazquez? Una propuesta

From 13 May, the Galería Álvaro Alcázar presents the solo exhibition of the British painter Simon Edmondson. It invites us to discover three previously unpublished series in charcoal and oil, which evoke what, according to experts in the field, could be the last works painted by Velázquez, which disappeared in the fire that destroyed the Alcázar in Madrid in 1734. Edmondson recreates here the mythological series documented as having been painted by the genius of the “Siglo de Oro” for the royal site around 1660, while the Prado Museum exhibits Mercury and Argus, the only one to survive the fire.

The royal register of 1686 mentions, along with Mercury and Argos, three paintings depicting the Ovidian myths of Venus and Adonis, Apollo and Marsyas and Psyche and Cupid, although it omits any mention of which moment of the story was depicted. Edmondson has followed the same technical and formal scheme used by Velázquez in Mercury and Argus to illustrate the scenes, using his own creativity to choose the moment and composition and bring them back to life. Moreover, thanks to his study of the actual inventory, the artist has succeeded in reproducing its proportions and its location within the famous “Salón de los Espejos”. The arrangement of the paintings, in the form of a mythological frieze, would be the same as in the royal site, thus transporting us to the palatial atmosphere of the reign of Philip IV.

On the other hand, the exhibition includes around ten works, some recent and others from different stages of the painter’s long artistic career.

¿Los últimos cuadros que pintó Velazquez? Una propuesta2021-05-13T17:17:41+00:00

DE NATURA: la naturaleza en su lugar geométrico

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the exhibition of Luis Canelo and Frank Buschmann, from March 25- April. “DE NATURA: La naturaleza en su lugar geométrico” combines the relationship of both artists with the natural world; Canelo from painting and Buschmann from cabinetmaking.

Luis Canelo delimits the formal scheme of the pictorial surface with lines and geometric planes, that dialogue with the presence of the materials. Frank Buschmann works directly with it, using wood and its multiple possibilities. In the exhibition, Canelo’s microscopic perspective and Buschmann’s macroscopic one combine to give rise to a complete vision of nature.

Catalogue
LIST OF WORKS
LUIS CANELO’S PRESS RELEASE
FRANK BUSCHMANN’S PRESS RELEASE

DE NATURA: la naturaleza en su lugar geométrico2021-04-23T11:30:27+00:00

Visto y No Visto

Alvaro Alcázar Gallery  is pleased to present the group exhibition Visto y no visto on Saturday, February 5. A play on words that seeks to show adaptation to immediate changes. Rethink what we have and improvise. Thus, the exhibition brings together more than twenty works by gallery artists, and invites the spectator to view and review these works, some of them previously exhibited and others shown for the first time here.

The tour begins with the works of Juan Garaizabal and Simon Edmondson, where light is presented as the main element, although treated in two radically different ways. They light our way until we come across some essential paintings and sculptures in Eduardo Arroyo’s work, where he boasts of this characteristic irony.

In this game of mixing and enhancing, the pairing Carlos III by Kepa Garraza with Stanford II by Alejandro Guijarro stands out. The first of an almost realistic figuration that contrasts with the abstraction evident in Guijarro’s erased blackboard.

Following the trail of the black that precedes, the skulls of Guillem Nadal are arranged, works that stand out for the materiality of their technique, very different from that of Rafael Canogar, who provides the note of color with the red line within so much white and black.

Soft and rounded forms constitute the link between the painting of Maru Quiñonero, with the black tondo of Bosco Sodi and, from a sculptural perspective, the work of Nigel Hall, which is presented as an ovals landscape.

On another wall, an impressive painting / tapestry by Antonio Murado from his last period, a descendant of those who were in his recent exhibition.

The explosion of color comes from Rebeca Plana, whose paintings stand out for their fast, energetic and vibrant stroke, while Simon Edmondson creates opposite sensations, inviting us to comfort and warmth through his Chaise Longe.

Catalogue
LIST OF WORKS

Visto y No Visto2021-02-25T12:01:37+00:00

Guillem Nadal

A wall is a vertical surface which closes or delimits a space. Nevertheless, at any gallery it becomes an essential place where the creations made by the artists rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) establish itself as a  integrating nexus that doesn’t delimit, except that, contrary, it opens to new aesthetic perspectives.

At the moment,  we present one of the most important works of Guillem Nadal.

Guillem Nadal

“S/T 16-12-16”

Mixed media on canvas

1,90 x 300cm.

Volver

Guillem Nadal2021-02-08T12:26:16+00:00

Oceánicas

“Oceánicas”

Cristina Babiloni

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents Oceánicas, the first solo exhibition by Cristina Babiloni as a new artist of the gallery. Oceánicas was created throughout this year, specifically for this space.

Cristina Babiloni’s works plunge us in the deep seabed, creating a unique sensory experience. When observing these works, it is inevitable to detach ourselves, sinking into the deep ocean and letting the sound of water lurk, that particular white noise in which we feel cozy and protected. There is even a forbidden attraction and a need of touching the works.

The tour begins in the darkness of the deep sea, tinged with an intense blue color, which gradually receives the effect of light and modifies the palette towards more typical of the coastal ecosystem tones. Vibrant tones that show the vital wealth and diversity of the oceanic surface.

For Cristina Babiloni, corals are the color of life and with her work, she seeks to raise awareness of the danger in which these super ecosystems are, due to pollution and global warming: “the oceans have become sponges of heat and waste toxic that make corals lose their color, the color of life. These are living beings, colonial animals on which 25% of marine species depend, they protect our coasts from rising sea levels and subsequent soil erosion. This is why through my work, I want to transmit the feeling and concern that I have, in order to raise the viewer awareness of this great threat ”.

CATALOGUE

Oceánicas2021-02-10T12:00:06+00:00

lo azul

“Lo azul”

Maru Quiñonero

Group exhibition

The word Blue, which we recognize and use as a masculine noun or adjective, is enlarged to gather an endless set of meanings. Because infinite can be every person perceptions and distorted personal memories.

Maru Quiñonero

Alvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the first solo exhibition of Mari Quiñonero as a new gallery artist. “Lo azul” is an exhibition created exclusively for this space, and is emerging as a great personal project. 

The exhibition features twelve works that reveal the evolution of the artist in the creative process of her series “Color and Vacuum”; a work beyond abstraction that focuses on the diversity of shapes and colors. The exhibition displays both, an unpublished text and a series of pictorial works on canvas and paper where the use of color is studied beyond mere plastic expression, opening up a range of possibilities that takes the artist to more moving areas. This journey through the color blue continues in a group exhibition, including artworks by gallery artists such as Mari Puri Herrero, Rafael Canogar, Peter Krauskopf, Rebeca Plana and Guillem Nadal, and also guest artists such as Alejandro Botubol and Jude Castel.

Taken together, both exhibitions highlight as Maru Quiñonero defined, a “merry-go-round of irrefutable blues”, which reveal, indeed, numerous emotional perceptions. Rafael Canogar leaves in his works the trail of the metaphorical and lyrical intensity of the pictorial surface. In “Winter”, the work presented here, blue acquires even greater force as a representation of that season. Peter Krauskopf also manages to give an almost wintery dimension to the blue in his brushstroke of pictorial drag, to the point of making it freezing with those metallic and shiny tones, so similar to ice.

Memories of a city can be also blue. Jude Castel represents in several works made in pen on paper, his vision of Madrid through emblematic monuments or buildings. Blue can also be the memory of water, of sea. For Rebeca Plana it is an approach to the Mediterranean Sea, the same as for Guillem Nadal. Even Alejandro Botubol, gives it a mystical character, as his his blue manages to illuminate itself. Finally, in the middle of the room we find a monumental sculpture by Mari Puri Herrero “Reading head” in that color that she defines as “Bilbao blue” and which shows how comfortable she feels painting with it. According to the artist, blue tends to expand better and how can it not, if it is the color of the sky, of the water. It is a color that allows you to feel free in movement.

Ultimately with these two exhibitions, perhaps we will be able to expand our own ideas and emotions regarding this color. Perhaps we will even be able, as Mari Puri says, to make us not feel confined with blue.

CATÁLOGO
“LO AZUL” por MARI QUIÑONERO

lo azul2020-12-28T10:36:18+00:00

Nacho Criado

Nacho Criado “Dieci anni dopo”

“I consider it fundamental to reclaim great figures of art, to revalue and give them the importance they deserve. I am proud to present this exhibition and to recall Nacho Criado as the great artist he was, one of the most significant to understand the art of the second half of the 20th century”

Álvaro Alcázar Gamarra

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the death of the artist Nacho Criado, Alvaro Alcázar Gallery presents a tribute exhibition, with a review of sixteen works produced between 1970 and 2008. This exhibition seeks to reflect the dynamics in the creation of his most emblematic works during the period that he worked with Carmen Gamarra and later with Álvaro Alcázar in different spaces.

Taken together, the exhibition shows Criado’s inspiration in international art trends such as minimalism, conceptual art and arte povera. However, Nacho Criado did not cling to a particular style but opened up instead his artistic boundaries. In fact, although he was considered one of the first proponents of conceptual art in Spain, he refused to declare himself a pioneer artist since his works, although complex and difficult, according to him, were developed from traditional works.

The exhibition route reveals a journey through the artist’s years of creation and is physically supported by two works: The Alpine Wound, representing a camel located in a superfluous, disoriented and lost environment and, despite its effort, weak and agonising, ends up dying in the attempt to reach the Mother Mountain. This sculpture is a metaphor of the camel’s journey. Both works lead us through space and despite being separated, they end up becoming, magically, just one.

Between these two works we find also on display monumental sculpture such as Desprendimiento de Cúpula, a work that shows the artist’s fascination with the concept of architecture as a failure of spaces, and in which Criado denotes the fragility of any conceptual construction.

It is also worth to highlight other works from different remarkable series within his artistic career, such as Homenaje a  Rothko, which represents the crisis of the traditional object. In this work the artist takes up again his sculptural facet throughout simple cardboard cut-outs, converting the hollow and the slight marks of colour into an evocation of the old materiality.

The series A partir de Matthias Grünewald as well as the monumental installation of the same title, along with the work on paper entitled A partir de Matthias Grünewald II, announce the characteristic sense of conceptual representation through the lightness of Nacho Criado’s geometric figures. The lines are cornered and tortured by their own geometry and the limit of the painting itself. The bodies, which in the original work are shown explicitly tortured, have disappeared, only remains the oblivion of their figures enclosed in transversal lines. 

He also produced on paper works as Domus Omnia or Gran Paisaje Convulso, which reflects an internal conversation about oneself own path, which ends up lining up and creating a mountainous landscape. The geographical reconstruction of what was experienced is ed in a fine and trembling layout with ups and downs

Finally, we would like to emphasize Dieci Anni dopo, which gives the name to the exhibition and reflects a more intimate aspect of Nacho Criado.

EXPOSICIÓN 3D
CATÁLOGO

Nacho Criado2020-12-31T12:41:37+00:00

Cristina Babiloni

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where the artists’ creations rest. After a year in which we have presented numerous projects by different artists on the gallery’s largest wall, we have considered the importance of also having a “virtual exhibition wall” on our website. From now on, we will present each week a new work in this space and in a digital way so that it reaches everyone.

In this second week we present one of the works that best reflects the current works of our artist Cristina Babiloni:

Mirador, 2020, técnica mixta sobre tela, ø 180 cm.

“2018 was the International year of Coral Reefs and now is time of reflection. It is very important to be aware that the fate of these super-ecosystems is hanging by a thread because of pollution and global warning. The oceans hace become sponges of heat and toxic waste that make corals lose their color, the color of life. As these are living beings, colonial animals on which 25% of marine species depend, protect our coasts from sea level rises and subsequent soil erosion. That is why in my work I want to convey this feelings and concern, to try to make the viewer aware of this great three of S.XXI. In our hand is to save the coral reefs!”

Cristina Babiloni

Volver

Cristina Babiloni2020-07-08T11:54:01+00:00

Antonio Murado

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where the artists’ creations rest. After a year in which we have presented numerous projects by different artists on the gallery’s largest wall, we have considered the importance of also having a “virtual exhibition wall” on our website. From now on, we will present each week a new work in this space and in a digital way so that it reaches everyone.

In this first week we present one of the works that best reflects the current works of our artist Antonio Murado:

It is one of the large format works that we have presented in his last exhibition Intramuros:

Untitled, 2019, oil on linen, 164 x 118 cm.

The artist describes the creative process of these works in a very concise way: “they were painted in plein air and left for weeks at the elements. They are inspired by animal skins and presented as tapestries. Le Corbusier called tapestries” murals nomads. It is this condition of mobility, adaptation and creation of a space or a domestic shelter that inspires them.”

It is a work that has also been presented at our Booth during the last edition of ARCO Madrid.

Volver

Antonio Murado2020-06-22T11:29:50+00:00

Rebeca Plana y Alejandro Guijarro

Rebeca Plana: Begin the Beguine

Alejandro Guijarro: 36 Views from Within

Begin the Beguine is Rebeca Plana’s first exhibition as a represented artist in Álvaro Alcázar gallery. Ten new, large-format works and realized in the previous months exclusively for this show, are display representing a shared desire: to start again.

The 195 x 162 cm paintings reveal the fluid and fast gestural imprint that characterizes the artist, whose practice is highly direct and fresh. These works are made on linen, a completely new medium for the artist, who, despite considering it complex, admits that it “has a lot of presence” and confirms her interest and curiosity in the use of different materials.

Her practice highlights the diversity of colors and their importance in transmitting numerous sensations. They work as a reflection of the inputs that the artist receives on a daily basis. She reuses, almost as a let motiv, the color green for example, is a color which makes her feel comfortable and consideres it as a reflection o a “wonderful magic”.She also uses the fluorescent orange that, according to her, puts in a latent way and provides that light which is much needed today in contrast to other more stormy colors.

Rebeca Plana should be addressed as an in-formalist artist and her paintings are a reflection of her passionate and rapturous character. She considers that her own essence is painting, therefore she paints because she has to paint and she can do it from the needle but it always has to be in calm conditions: “I like to say that I paint from the stomach and not from the heart , because the anger comes out of your guts, even if you are learning to control it”.

In this period of wide uncertainty, each one focuses on their ability and Rebeca Plana knows how to paint and express her feelings. She starts again.

The photographer Alejandro Guijarro, for his exhibition in Álvaro Alcázar gallery, displays 36 images where photography is shown at its intersection with other media such as painting or print. His creative process reveals a technique closely related to surrealist painting: decalcomania.

This technique, so widely used by artists such as Óscar Domínguez or Max Ernst, among others, is known as one of the so-called mechanical or automatic painting processes. Using a now obsolete type of instant film and its chemicals process such as pigments, Alejandro Guijarro brings this technique to the field of photography, blurring the line between the real and the fictitious, between the tangible and the imagined: “this work establishes a fictitious space. From my study, I document the world with my eyes closed”.

The artist breaks the limits of the photographic image and creates a fragmented relationship between the object and its representation. Thus reality and his visual experience are further questioned. In this way, the artist manages to create a series of landscapes that honor Katsushika Hokusai and his 36 views of Mount Fuji. He considers it an interior journey through landscapes that have a geographical reference and invites us as spectators to create our own journey.

CATALOGUE
PRESS DOSSIER REBECA PLANA
PRESS DOSSIER ALEJANDRO GUIJARRO

Rebeca Plana y Alejandro Guijarro2020-06-26T11:42:34+00:00

Kepa Garraza

On this occasion, we invite Kepa Garraza, who presents two of his most recent works: “Harmodious and Aristogeiton” and “Black panthers at Yale University”.

Throughout each season, different international artists and curators will be invited to present a work on the central wall of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery.

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where artists’ creations rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) is established as an integrating nexus that does not delimit, but, on the contrary, opens up to new aesthetic perspectives.

Kepa Garraza2020-04-17T08:21:23+00:00

Kepa Garraza and Bosco Sodi

Kepa Garraza: Propaganda

Bosco Sodi: Cuatro grandes alegorías

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents two solo exhibitions, Kepa Garraza and Bosco Sodi from February 25 to April 11, 2020.

In Propaganda, Kepa Garraza presents ten of his most recent works and reflects on the nature of the images we consume daily. This exhibition is presented as a series of drawings through which the artist wants to analyze the representation of power throughout history. In order to achieve this, he has used a serie of images that have been used as political, military or revolutionary propaganda from ancient Greece to the present day. The selection of these images responds to personal preferences and a very specific way of reading and interpreting the story. This project has, therefore, the intention of reflecting on the way in which power has been represented throughout the centuries, as well as showing the fundamental role that art has played in this process. The history of art has, therefore, a key importance in the development of this project, since a good part of the images that Kepa Garraza has used as references to make these drawings correspond to paintings and sculptures that throughout the centuries have been used as a political tool. Photography and cinema are obviously two other sources of powerful inspiration, especially for those works that refer to events that occurred in the 20th and 21st centuries. His intention with these works is none other than to reflect on the role of art within our society and highlight something that is not new: the political and social dimension of art and its inevitable influence on the development and narration of history.

Bosco Sodi presents four of his most recent works, made ad hoc for the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery space. Four great allegories (Homage to Goya) is an exhibition in which the artist wanted to make a particular nod to the set of four tondos, made by Goya commissioned by Manuel Godoy at the beginning of the 19th century, initially known as the four allegories. Goya had painted these four tondos to express the ideals of the Enlightenment and Sodi reinterprets them creating four works that explore the areas in which nature and humanity combine and look for the beauty implicit in destruction.

Sodi focuses in the symbolism of the color black treating it in its purest definition: the absence of light. As Goya was able to perceive it at a certain moment in Illustrated Spain, light is reason and does not exist without darkness. It is the shadow that reveals the lack of lucidity, it is “the dream of reason that produces monsters”. Sodi resembles that lack of light to that non-use of reason and stops at the drama generated by the shadow. As a contemporary artist, he recreates himself in the materiality of the painting, giving rise to an almost organic appearance that highlights even more, if he can, the color black. Perhaps the artist is inviting us to reflect on the darkness that sometimes plunges us as a society into a well of irrationality. In this work, Sodi not only dyes Goya’s work black, but also destroys the regularity of the format of those four works. Its four interpretations are circular, yes, but they are not the same size and thus create an emotional imbalance typical of desolation. What allegory would each work represent, and what would have grown or waned in our contemporary era? It is up to us to reflect on the current weight in our society of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture and Science.

Kepa Garraza and Bosco Sodi2020-04-17T17:38:57+00:00

Mi Casa

Mi casa (My home)

Virtual collective exhibition

From 17th of March 2020

From the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery, we want to launch a project focused on underlining the importance of staying home these days. There is no need to go out unless it is essential and it is absolutely necessary to limit contacts to end this pandemic. 

For this, we invite all artists to send us photographs and details of works related to the house, the home, no matter the support or size, the important thing is to emphasize the idea of staying at home. We will be publishing all the works that are arrriving under the hashtags already known as #myhome #stayhome, #istayathome and also these specifics of the project #whithartistayathome and #arthouse The works that we like the most we will also share on social networks and on our website. 

This will end and when it does, we will make an exhibition. A sample that will be seen in a happy time, after a critic one, that will unite us and make us more responsible, more empathetic and more supportive. Whether you are an artist or not, we ask you to spread it, to think and to let some artist who wants to participate know, we are going to make this project of all of them.

Catalogue 1

Mi Casa2020-05-13T09:38:26+00:00

ARCO 2020

Stand 7C03

En esta edición de ARCOMadrid, la Galería Álvaro Alcázar ha decidido presentar un Stand cuyo tema principal es el tiempo. El lema de ARCO de este año es: It’s a matter of time y nosotros hemos querido aferrarnos a esa idea.

Por un lado, hemos pensado en presentar las obras más inéditas de nuestros artistas reflejando así el tiempo como evolución artística. Tendremos obras inéditas de Eduardo Arroyo, cuya obra es una de las últimas que ha pintado, Antonio Murado, Peter Krauskopf, Mari Puri Herrero y Simon Edmonson. También presentaremos dos obras de Kepa Garraza y Bosco Sodi que reflejan la exposición que tendremos en la Galería durante ARCO. Incluso presentamos en primicia una de las últimas obras de Rafael Canogar como representación de sus últimos trabajos realizados sobre metacrilato. 

Por otro lado, hemos pensado en el tiempo finito que nos acecha diariamente con la crisis del cambio climático. Una de las entradas al stand tiene una torre de reloj escultura monumental realizada por Juan Garaizabal que nos recuerda como nos estamos quedando sin tiempo y es necesario intervenir. Entrar por esa puerta nos permite visualizar un conjunto de obras que rodean una instalación del artista Miguel Sbastida que revela las arqueologías climáticas. Todo esto acompañado de obras de artistas tan naturalistas y orgánicas como las de Guillem Nadal, Luis Canelo y Cristina Babiloni. En el centro de nuestro Stand encontraremos una mesa de centro y dos sillas de nogal americano realizadas por Franck Buschmann Bella.

VER CATÁLOGO

ARCO 20202021-11-25T09:52:41+00:00

Mari Puri Herrero y Miguel Sbastida

Mari Puri Herrero: Al salir, cierra la puerta

Miguel Sbastida: Arqueologías climáticas

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery opens two individual exhibitions by Mari Puri Herrero and Miguel Sebastián in which he analyzes the role of nature with different creative and aesthetic processes that dialogue with each other.

In Upon leaving, close the door, Mari Puri Herrero shows us his most recent work. Thirteen works that introduce us to the intimacy of their creative process where introspection is fundamental. Thus, a deep look of the artist herself arises when reviewing her own artistic evolution.

Throughout the exhibition we see how the artist does not stop so much in a literary discursive theme but decides to delve into the themes by studying the lights, colors and shadows. Various themes related to nature emerge, such as that of the night, which is conceived as a foundation where the contrast between the points of light and the deep blues.

An interest in the idea of ​​continuous movement in nature arises. It breaks loose and its abruptness can create spectral figures. A good example of this virulence is the triptych “Conversation”, created ad hoc for the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery, where we see that bower and movement of the trees produced by the wind that ends up shaping two figures of dreamlike air, evoking a memory.

An important constant in Mari Puri Herrero’s work is her interest in oriental arts. Over the years he has reflected and worked hard around the special link between them in drawing and painting. His work has been influenced by this interest, his strokes sometimes of abrupt appearance commune with the delicacy of almost ethereal figures.

In this exhibition, Mari Puri Herrero finally opens the door to her particular world where her main leimotiv will be those almost spectral figures that will be included with such a characteristic and vital movement.

Climate archeologies is the first individual exhibition of Miguel Sbastida in the space of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery, which brings together a selection of works carried out between 2017 and 2019 around a line of research focused on the processes of environmental collapse and ice ecologies; in which the Madrid artist has been working since 2012.

The exhibition presents three interconnected projects through which it presents a view and reconstruction of the processes of climate change from glacier ice as an archaeological artifact; inviting you to reflect on concepts of absence, instability, temporality and fragility.

The installation of sculptures formed by steel skeletons of fluid shapes and volumes, For as long as possible (Chicago, 2017) is inspired by the Swiss Alps Glaciers, which are covered each year by white thermal fabrics in a futile effort to stop the accelerated loss of their frozen bodies. Slow Violence (Iceland, 2018) gives way to the glacier as an entity capable of narrating its own disappearance through an intervention carried out in an Icelandic glacier, in which a set of sheets of paper are marked by the incessant drip obtained from the thaw The guiding thread of the exhibition is developed around the Archeologies of Climate installation (Madrid, 2017-2019, carried out with the support of the Community of Madrid and La Real Fábrica de Cristales de la Granja); composed of a set of glass columns made from glacier deposit patterns, which takes as a starting point the practice of ice mass drilling and obtaining ice cores as artifacts through which architecture can be studied and reconstructed Earth’s climate.

Mari Puri Herrero y Miguel Sbastida2020-02-10T17:52:24+00:00

Mari Puri Herrero

On this occasion, we invite Mari Puri Herrero (1971), who presents Conversation; arises from an interest in the idea of continuous movement in nature. It breaks loose and its abruptness can create spectral figures. In this triptych created ad hoc for the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery we see that bower and movement of the trees produced by the wind that ends up shaping two figures of dreamlike air, evoking a memory.

Throughout each season, different international artists and curators will be invited to present a work on the central wall of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery.

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where artists’ creations rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) is established as an integrating nexus that does not delimit, but, on the contrary, opens up to new aesthetic perspectives.

Mari Puri Herrero2020-06-22T11:31:51+00:00

Mari Puri Herrero y Miguel Sbastida

Mari Puri Herrero: Al salir, cierra la puerta

Miguel Sbastida: Arqueologías climáticas

La Galería Álvaro Alcázar inaugura dos exposiciones individuales de Mari Puri Herrero y de Miguel Sbastida en las que se analiza el papel de la naturaleza con procesos creativos y estéticos diferentes que dialogan entre sí.

En Al salir, cierra la puerta, Mari Puri Herrero nos muestra su trabajo más reciente. Trece obras que nos introducen en la intimidad de su proceso creativo donde la introspección son fundamentales. Surge así una mirada profunda de la propia artista a la hora de revisar su propia evolución artística. 

A lo largo de la exposición vemos cómo la artista no se detiene tanto en una temática discursiva literaria sino que decide ahondar en los temas mediante el estudio de las luces, los colores y las sombras. Surgen así diversos temas relacionados con la naturaleza como el de la noche que se concibe como cimiento donde el contraste entre los puntos de luz y los azules profundos. 

Surge un interés por la idea del movimiento continuo en la naturaleza. Ésta se desata y su brusquedad puede llegar a crear figuras espectrales. Un buen ejemplo de esta virulencia, es el tríptico “Conversación”, creado ad hoc para la Galería Álvaro Alcázar, donde vemos ese enramado y movimiento de los árboles producido por el viento que acaba moldeando dos figuras de aire onírico, evocando a un recuerdo. 

Una constante importante en la obra de Mari Puri Herrero es su interés por las artes orientales. A lo largo de los años ha reflexionado y trabajado mucho en torno a el especial enlace que hay en ellas entre el dibujo y la pintura. Su obra se ha visto influenciada por este interés, sus trazos en ocasiones de apariencia brusca comulgan con la delicadeza de figuras casi etéreas. 

En esta exposición Mari Puri Herrero finalmente nos abre la puerta a su particular mundo donde su principal leimotiv serán esas figuras casi espectrales presentadas con un movimiento tan característico y vital. 

Arqueologías Climáticas es la primera exposición individual de Miguel Sbastida en el espacio de la Galería Álvaro Alcázar, que reúne una selección de obras realizadas entre 2017 y 2019 en torno a una línea de investigación centrada en los procesos del desmoronamiento medioambiental y las ecologías del hielo; en la que el artista madrileño lleva trabajando desde 2012. 

La muestra presenta tres proyectos interconectados a través de los que plantea una mirada y reconstrucción de los procesos del cambio climático a partir del hielo glaciar como artefacto arqueológico; invitando a reflexionar sobre conceptos de ausencia, inestabilidad, temporalidad y fragilidad. 

La instalación de esculturas formadas por esqueletos de acero de formas y volúmenes fluidos, For as Long as Possible (Chicago, 2017) se inspira en los Glaciares de los Alpes Suizos, los  cuales son cada año cubiertos por telas térmicas blancas en un esfuerzo fútil de frenar la pérdida acelerada de sus cuerpos helados. Slow Violence (Islandia, 2018) deja paso al glaciar como entidad capaz de narrar su propia desaparición a través de una intervención llevada a cabo en un glaciar Islandés, en la que un conjunto de hojas de papel son marcadas por el incesante goteo  procedente del deshielo. El hilo conductor de la exposición se desarrolla en torno a la instalación Archaeologies of Climate (Madrid, 2017-2019, realizada con el apoyo de la Comunidad de Madrid y La Real Fábrica de Cristales de la Granja); compuesta por un conjunto de columnas de cristal realizadas a partir de patrones de depósito glaciar, que toma como punto de partida la práctica de perforaciones de masas heladas y la obtención de núcleos de hielo como artefactos a través de los que se puede estudiar y reconstruir la arquitectura climatológica de la Tierra.

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Mari Puri Herrero y Miguel Sbastida2021-04-15T09:15:57+00:00

En Paralelo: A day is a day

The Gallery presents the second edition of its project In Parallel entitled A day is a day. For this exhibition the Gallery has designed a calendar of the year 2020 in which the artists of the Gallery and guests have made a work with free technique and theme. It is an exhibition in which the only homogeneous element, the calendar, will be surrounded by different styles, themes, techniques, showing the aesthetic diversity of current art.

We would like to thank the forty-six artists who have made this exhibition possible whose benefits will go, in part, to the Pablo Hortsman Foundation in the section of the Belén Jordana maternal care unit (Ethiopia):

María Acuyo, Anuca Aísa, Nacho Alcázar, Ángel Alen, Eduardo Arroyo, Cristina Babiloni, Luis Canelo, Rafael Canogar, Carla Cascales Alimbau, Pedro Castrortega, Félix de la Concha, Simon Edmondson, Abel Fernandes, Hugo Fontela, Jorge Galindo, Kepa Garraza , Norberto Gil, Miguel Gómez Losada, Reyes Abad, Macarena Gross, Mari Puri Herrero, Paz Juristo, Peter Krauskopf, Cristina Lama, Miki Leal, Francisco Leiro, Lluis Lleó, Berta Llonch, Sergio de Luz, Rafael Macarrón, Eduardo Martín del Pozo , Felicidad Moreno, Antonio Murado, Guillem Nada, Miguel Nuñez, Rebeca Plana, Mari Quiñonero, David Rodriguez Caballero, Inés San Miguel, Mónica Sánchez Robles, Matías Sánchez, Miguel Sbastida, Julien Spiewak, Isabel Valdecasas, Nuria Vidal, Javier Viver.

En Paralelo: A day is a day2019-12-27T17:50:22+00:00

Intramuros

Intramuros

Antonio Murado

“In this exhibition I present two recent work groups that show a clear relationship with the interior and domestic space.
Large-format paintings were painted outdoors and remained exposed to the elements for weeks in the forest. They are inspired by animal skins and presented as if they were tapestries, without their racks. Le Corbusier called tapestries “nomadic murals”, is that idea of ​​mobility, adaptation and creation of a space or shelter that inspires them.
The second group of paintings, has its origin in the intersection of the painting and the human body through furniture, specifically armchairs and armchairs of the eighteenth century. They are works that represent the window frames that are deformed resulting in the introduction of curves and asymmetric sides. The sides of the racks that normally go unnoticed because nobody stops to look at them frontally, take on greater prominence in these works. I built them thoroughly with noble wood marquetry to underline their object and unique condition. ”

Antonio Murado
November 2019

Intramuros2019-11-06T17:51:34+00:00

En Paralelo

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents a new project entitled En Paralelo. In this season, the Gallery will present among the general exhibitions, short duration shows which invited artist and artist from the Gallery. An opportunity to get closer to more intimate pieces that are part of the Gallery’s warehouse and discover new artist.

In this first edition we can find numerous young artist such as Mari Quiñonero, Miguel Gómez Losada, Isabel Valdecasas, Marcelo Burgos, Jaime Castillo, Maria Acuyo and Ángel Alén. Their works are the core of this exhibition´s approach: creating a formal and thematic dialogue between them and the works of the artist of the Gallery: Eduardo Arroyo, Nigel Hall, Guillem Nadal, Rafael Canogar, Mari Puri Herrero, Peter Krauskopf and Kepa Garraza.

En Paralelo2019-10-25T16:33:40+00:00

Werner Mannaers

On this occasion, we invite Werner Mannaers (1954), who presents The Cherry Creek Stories; A triptych composed of three large-scale works (250 x 160 cm) of 2019, whose title recalls the direction of his studio and titled all the exhibition he currently has in the Gallery. In this case, our wall joins the exhibition of this artist creating a joint vision of his most recent works.

Throughout each season, various international artists and curators will be invited to present a work of art on the central wall of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery.

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where the creations made by the artists rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) is established as an integrating nexus that is not delimited, except that, on the contrary, it opens up to new aesthetic perspectives.

Werner Mannaers2019-10-17T17:31:15+00:00

APERTURA 2019

APERTURA 2019

Werner Mannaers The Cherry Creek Stories

Juan Garaizabal En la Memoria

First presentation in a Gallery, here in Madrid of the prestigious artist Werner Mannaers: 

“One reason I still paint is because of the never-ending challenge of the orthodoxy of Modernism itself. My recent paintings flowed out of me in the most natural way, as though I couldn’t finish them quickly enough, maybe because I had found a new “alphabet,” as if some sort of psychological floodgates had been opened.

Art is a mirror. It is inevitably about falseness. My art is whimsical, offhand, not serious, but at the same time deadly sincere. I’m a painter always ambitiously courting failure, but fighting for perfection in every sense of the word, attempting to transform the conventional into the visionary.

My work is restless, teasing, and self-deprecatory. It mines and undermines art history.”

For APERTURA 2019 the artist Juan Garaizabal has created a set of sculptures made specially for the new space of the Gallery. Following his concept of Urban Memories, he designed  several columns that recall the late city of Palmira.

Juan Garaizabal starts his projects with illustrations that recreate what no longer exists and serve as a model to give shape with materials such as concrete and steel. These create a dialogue between the object and emptiness. Therefor the spirituality of the place is visually represented.

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APERTURA 20192019-10-17T10:34:20+00:00

ESTAMPA 2019

Guillem Nadal y Kepa Garraza

STAND 1C02

La Galería Álvaro Alcázar presenta las obras más recientes de los artistas Guillem Nadal y Kepa Garraza, dos artistas aparentemente opuestos cuyas obras revelan un diálogo entre la abstracción y la figuración, entre la textura y el contraste, entre lo espiritual y lo terrenal. Dos artistas cuyas miradas, en cualquier caso, reflejan la búsqueda de la representación efímera e incierta de la memoria. 

Las obras de Guillem Nadal forman parte de su Proyecto para una isla. En su exploración constante, el artista propone cartografías sin principio ni fin que sitúan al espectador frente al abismo. El viaje es el hilo conductor de estas piezas que originan lugares experimentales de transición. El viaje, como vivencia y como metáfora, supone una huella que conecta con la memoria; un sedimento que invita a la introspección. Así, los lienzos, las tablas y los papeles que se muestran constituyen elementos únicos de un laberinto por el que adentrarse.

La obra de Kepa Garraza reflexiona acerca de la naturaleza de las imágenes que consumimos a diario, invitando al espectador a cuestionarse problemáticas relacionadas con la identidad y la manipulación de la información. Su reinterpretación de la realidad es siempre ambigua y confusa, llena de sutilezas y zonas grises que invitan al espectador a repensar el relato histórico y la crónica de la realidad. Su mirada irónica y ácida ofrece alternativas a la realidad que conocemos y nos propone un ejercicio saludable: dudar siempre de la versión oficial.

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ESTAMPA 20192019-10-17T10:32:14+00:00

Guillem Nadal

On this occasion, we invite Félix de la Concha (León, 1962) who presents his work La Virgen del Puig, a 27-piece polyptych of 56.7 x 35.2 cm each. This monumental work reflects his interest in always painting the natural and thus immersing himself in an intense analysis of architecture. In this way, Felix de la Concha manages to represent the environment in which he finds himself and reaffirms the idea that his pictorial compositions are inspired by the place where he lives. As he says, “I don’t come up with a preconceived idea.”

Throughout each season, different international artists and curators will be invited to present a work on the central wall of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery.

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where artists’ creations rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) is established as an integrating nexus that does not delimit, but, quite the contrary, opens up to new aesthetic perspectives.

Guillem Nadal2019-10-17T17:30:45+00:00

PhotoEspaña19

FestivalOff PhotoESPAÑA 2019

Tree, TREE…

Myoung Ho Lee

A grove of trees from a point of view

Juan Millás

LO QUE HAS LEÍDO, ERES

ANUCA AÍSA Y PAZ JURISTO 

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents three exhibitions that reveal different points of view and a personal conception of nature and urban spaces by means of photography. This is a project that seeks to create a dialogue between artists who deal with apparently different topics but who actually have a relationship between them: the contemporary aesthetics gaze.

Thanks to a collaboration between the Spanish Korean Cultural Centre in Madrid and the Hyundai Gallery from Seoul, the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the singular work of the south Korean artist Myoung Ho Lee. In this exhibition the artist brings up to us some unusual questions about the representation of reality, art and environment in his series Tree, Tree…. His photographies show a simple concept through a complex realisation: the trees are shown in his natural context but separated superficially by a white cloth that frames them and, at the same time, taking them out of their context. Thereby, the artist separates the subjects from their original circumstances to reflect on the difference between subject and image. A new representation of nature is built and reveals an optical illusion that is ultimately the artwork within the artwork that encourages us to analyze the image and delve into our way of looking.

On the other hand, Juan Millás sets in his series A grove of trees from a point of view, a study of nature that seeks to achieve a sight, nowadays utopian, of those who contemplated a landscape for the first time in nature. In this way, he also makes a study of our gaze revealing a proposal, imagined, about the origin of the landscape. In the words of the artist himself:

A few years ago I wanted to make a documentary project about ‘the walk’ in the purest style of the writer Robert Walser. I wanted to practice the art of getting lost with the camera in a forest. That intention was transformed into a work about the landscape, also about photography, understood both (the perception of the landscape and the photographic gaze) as hallucinations caused by the crossing, “at an infinite speed” (Jean-Marc Besse), between the world and thought. The vehicle I found to move from one universe to another was the menhir. The architect Francesco Careri, author of Walkscapes: walking as an aesthetic practice (Gustavo Gili, 2002), describes the prehistoric monolith as an object that “contains in itself architecture, sculpture and landscape”. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is a body interposed between nature and culture. It is territory because before standing up it lacked of symbolic connotations. But the menhir is also order, composition, representation. By rotating it, the human being transforms the stone into something else: strangeness, dream, story. I went into the woods, north of the French region of Brittany, imagining that it would still be possible to distinguish the contour of that differentiation. Pursued the utopian vision of those who contemplated for the first time a landscape in nature.”

Finally, the series Lo que has leído, eres by Paz Juristo and Anuca Aísa reflects the most personal section of this project. The artists honour Francisco Calvo Serraller creating a tour of all the countries described in the literature that they read with him, thus closing a journey that, as a whole, rethinks the gaze. Each photo represents the following sentences:

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PhotoEspaña192019-09-28T12:04:46+00:00

Sprezzatura Simon Edmonson

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the biggest project of Simon Edmondson. From 2007 he is being studying the more intimate aspects of the paintings made by Diego Velázquez.  His studies of the painter of the painters is showed on canvas, on paper and on four monumental canvas with same dimension as “Las Meninas”, 318 x 276 cm, that are the centre of the whole exhibition. 

This Edmondson’s long and demanding artistic incursion has consisted in reconsidering the most personal painting by the brilliant master an also the ideological core of the Prado Museum and seed of the current awareness about Painting. This reconsideration is made with the purpose of bringing to light the expressive density of the artwork, today buried because of the enormous quantity of theoretical speculations.

That task has entailed the deploying of this Edmondson’s strict and improbable creative process based on the material standards and techniques managed by Velázquez in 1656, as on the existing historical documentation, assimilating the genius’s plastic solutions as far as arriving to the background of the painting, which, based on the British author, was a noble intention: portray the human existence of this palace’s group.

The Italian term used to title this spectacular exhibition, Sprezzatura, was used by ancient artistic culture to relate the energy and skills which with the great painters execute the most complex figurative scenarios. In this way, Edmondson reveal us that this is the current strength of the contemporary painting: his capacity to provide with life, with energy, in conclusion, with humanity, the reinterpretations of the world. The irreductible mysterious of Art resides in the way the creator poses the brushstrokes on the support.

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Sprezzatura Simon Edmonson2019-09-28T11:59:33+00:00

Nero

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the third edition of the exhibition Una Colectiva. The show  untitled Nero, brings together eight artists with selected pieces that have a common denominator: the color black. From the Gallery we pretend to admire this color, living behind the negativity  of this  concept  so ingrained in the Occidental culture. 

In the work of the Japanese ceramist Toshio Matsui beauty resides in the reflections of the absence of light and emphasizes in the idea of ​​depth thanks to the technique used. The patina of time and using showed in its ceramics along with those of Philippe Barde, contributes to exalt the beauty of the shadow.

In Occident we can see how the absence of color is more and more conceived as something beautiful. The emptiness as a concept creates a contrast between sculptures and context and it gives elegance as we can see in the pieces of Nigel Hall, Jaime Castillo. Other artists like Rafael Canogar and David Nash work with sobriety in order to praise the shadow over shadow. Therefor they create beautiful textures with a superposition of different layers of black.

Finally, we can not forget the idea of black as power. On the one hand, Kepa Garraza gives even more power to fierce historical figures, represented hieratically, by the use of darkness, making the spectator feel fragile and human. On the other hand, Eduardo Arroyo’s work empowers and gives elegance to nearby characters that normally go unnoticed, such as the chimney sweep.

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Nero2019-09-28T11:52:05+00:00

Felix de la Concha

On this occasion, we invite Félix de la Concha (León, 1962) who presents his work La Virgen del Puig, a 27-piece polyptych of 56.7 x 35.2 cm each. This monumental work reflects his interest in always painting the natural and thus immersing himself in an intense analysis of architecture. In this way, Felix de la Concha manages to represent the environment in which he finds himself and reaffirms the idea that his pictorial compositions are inspired by the place where he lives. As he says, “I don’t come up with a preconceived idea.”

Throughout each season, different international artists and curators will be invited to present a work on the central wall of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery.

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where artists’ creations rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) is established as an integrating nexus that does not delimit, but, quite the contrary, opens up to new aesthetic perspectives.

Felix de la Concha2019-10-17T17:28:05+00:00

Esculturas Nigel Hall

Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents a new solo exhibition by Nigel Hall, one of the most distinguished sculptors in England. 

The exhibition includes twelve sculptures made between 1995 and 2018 displaying the development of the artist’s practice. This exhibition shows the development of Hall’s focus on exploring three-dimensional space, mass and line. It shows the importance of the void as an essential factor for the artist to start creating more linear sculptures with a bigger emphasis on their geometry. 

As Hall says: ‘My work has always revolved around space. I am fascinated by the way in which geometry can be perceived in the landscape.’ Through this the sculptures are subtly incorporated into a space while maintaining the play of light and shadow characteristic to his sculptures. The works almost evoke lightness, regardless of the material used, and bestow elegance upon the environment they are placed in.

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Esculturas Nigel Hall2019-09-28T11:29:36+00:00

Una Colectiva, Arantza Pardo y Philippe Barde

The Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents a collective exhibition in which it invites us to interpret a dialogue between the solidity of the Philippe Barde pieces and the incorporation of those of Arantza Pardo.

On the one hand, the ethereal world in which the large-format canvases of Pardo wrap us almost hit us with a light and a vertiginous movement in which each painting is a new experiment where reconfigures the scientific imaginary. The Unknown series allows to grant an aesthetic solution to the invisible cosmic landscape, although the final result does not represent a real appearance, since the unknown cannot be represented. It provides, thus, an experimental opportunity to challenge assumptions and spiritual perspectives.

On the other hand, the resounding pieces of Barde lead us to reconnect with the terrestrial by means of materials of pure essence of the earth, such as magnesium or the mud itself. In this exhibition we can see their Yakuza woods, created from the combination of different wooden molds; three Stonewear that are a clear example of the terrestrial purity obtained from the magnesium of Mont Blanc; finally with All the same we can see the potter’s game when using the same mold to create different faces.

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Una Colectiva, Arantza Pardo y Philippe Barde2019-09-28T11:52:50+00:00

Code of Color of Peter Krauskopf

The Alvaro Alcázar Gallery opens its new space with an exhibition that presents the most recent works by Peter Krauskopf. Code of color is a show in which color is the protagonist. The title refers not only to what is seen on the surface, but also to what lies underneath.When talking about his work, Peter Krauskopf invariably mentions destruction as a fundamental part of the creation. He composes his works in layers reminiscent of pentimenti until he reaches a point where surfaces become textures and structures of interlaced lines and bars. The visual appeal lies in the duality of the physical mixture of colors and the rejection of pictorial volume. The artistic strategy of Peter Krauskopf does not aim at perfection. On the contrary, he seems to be more interested in the systematic errors present in the algorithm of his production process.

Color is the principal element. The artist chooses the most attractive ones and merges the matt and the glossy to arrive at his own interpretation of light. Color also reveals the strong connection that exists between his paintings and works on paper. The papers are born from the excess color of the paintings, showing what the artist did during the day. By sharing these visual diaries, Peter Krauskopf lets us participate in his enigmatic creative process.

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Code of Color of Peter Krauskopf2019-09-28T10:50:40+00:00

Una colectiva

From December 13, 2018 to February 9, 2019

A gallery is defined by the works it exhibits. The artists make the gallery and the gallery connects the public with the artists.

Since the opening of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery in 2006, several national and international creators have set up a common project that has taken shape in different spaces. Now they continue this trip in a new headquarters, located in Ferrer del Río 5 street in Madrid.

On the occasion of the inauguration of this new space, the Álvaro Alcazar Gallery shows the most recent works of its artists: Luis Canelo, Rafael Canogar, Anthony Caro, Simon Edmondson, Juan Garaizabal, Kepa Garraza, Nigel Hall, Mari Puri Herrero, Antonio Murado , Guillem Nadal, David Nash, Miguel Sbastida and Bosco Sodi.

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Una colectiva2019-09-28T10:24:51+00:00

Japanese Ceramics

A Japanese Ceramic Exhibition, why?

May be since Ceramics are a major art in Japan.

And why Madrid?

May be because it’s the 150 anniversary of the relationship between Japan and Spain.

May be because my lifetime took me to the country of the rising sun to meet its great artists, sharing with my friend Álvaro Alcázar our interest in art.

Surely because every morning we may reinvent ourselves with a new adventure.

Our life is dual. An exchange between countries, Orient and Occident, Japan and Spain, a reciprocal friendship shared between two artists Philippe Barde and Toshio Matsui, incited us to show these new Japanese ceramics to Madrid.

Ceramics are earth and fire, ancient and primitive but in Asia and of course in Japan, they are the mirror of a culture.

Each clay belongs to a specific place which has its telluric history: its geology, its properties, its qualities and different malleability.

Fire, burning sometimes for a week is a force like an earthquake or a volcano but always part of everyday life . As one opens the kiln there is always doubt: how did the stoneware react, how did the ashes burn the piece and reveal new colours, what dissolved under the heat.

Ceramics are vital, physical and mental. In Japan, people accept to live with natural elements and allow themselves be annihilated by universal force. There is always an acceptance without rebellion of the environment as part of the universe.

In this art, the ceramist, despite his knowledge, his technic and experience, is always at the mercy of fire, water and clay… Every piece displayed today is a victory.

This art is a philosophy, the representation of a way of life. . It expresses the meaning of religion (Zen) through the tea ceremony which also lends beauty to the everyday. The object and its use participate in an aesthetic act. Each piece fulfils its function as it evolves… Actually chawans or tea bowls are not always fit for a ceremony. But this research, both material and intellectual is a modern display governed by qualitative norms inherited from a long tradition.

Its beauty is imperfect, never symmetric, resulting in the representation of an uneven and magnificent world.

Contemporary ceramics are representations of the world, combining to reveal a duel or a challenge with universal energy: Earth- Fire- Man.

This exhibition is an exploration, demonstrating how two well-known ceramists artists Philippe Barde and Toshio Matsui, both University professors collaborated in many projects throughout their life.

One comes from the Occident, Switzerland, the other from the Orient, Japan.

But both share the same love of clay, the pure essence of our earth, with the same tradition, culture and magnanimous will to reach the limits of their investigation.

Their fabulous complicity incited them t found the PT Project where they intermingled and shared works for over 20 years. They represent the duality: Orient and Occident, an intellectual and technical union focusing on the same search. It is a friendship beyond self interest, creating and sharing pieces, in unison.

— Caroline Caffin.

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Japanese Ceramics2018-10-17T17:37:23+00:00

Eduardo Arroyo

This project opens with Eduardo Arroyo.

Throughout each season, different artists and international curators will be invited to present a work on the central wall of the Álvaro Alcázar Gallery.

A wall is a vertical surface that closes or delimits a space. However, in any gallery it becomes an essential place where artists’ creations rest. Our wall (550 x 800 cm) is established as an integrating nexus that does not delimit, but, quite the contrary, opens up to new aesthetic perspectives.

Eduardo Arroyo2019-10-17T17:25:36+00:00

Freedom Sculptures

As in previous editions, HayFestival in Segovia dedicates in Félix Ortiz’s orchard-garden in San Marcos neighborhood a special space to sculpture. From September 22, an exhibition will show the works of the artist Juan Garaizabal. 

The display shows twelve sculptures that recover missing several architectural elements from different cities such as Berlin, Venice, Seoul, etc. The works maintain an harmonious relationship with the context in which they are located; although they are all monumental, they perfectly match the landscape of this particular and unique garden. It is worth highlighting the materials Garaizabal used for the sculptures, such as steel, brick, wood and concrete, that allow the artist to explore techniques such as forging, carpentry, electricity and masonry, highlighting him as an eclectic sculptor.

Thanks to this exhibition, there is also a dialogue with the artist’s most recent work, La Puerta de San Martín, which is also shown in the Hay Festival and which becomes part of his already well-known Memorias Urbanas.

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Freedom Sculptures2021-01-04T17:54:57+00:00

CORPS DE STYLE

En el marco del festival OFF de la vigésimo primera edición de PHotoEspaña, la Galería Alvaro Alcázar presenta, por primera vez en nuestro país, la exposición Corps de style del fotógrafo francés Julien Spiewak. Desde el año 2005 el artista ha estado desarrollando la serie Corps de style en interiores de museos y colecciones privadas de Francia y el extranjero. Se podrán ver catorce fotografías y doce estudios de esta serie en la que elabora un inventario preciso, con detalle, donde diversas partes del cuerpo quedan integradas en las decoraciones. Así, existe en el enfoque del artista esta combinación entre el proyecto y la realización, entre el modelo y la decoración. Además, otorga una brizna de fantasía a su obra para configurar un universo fotográfico propio.

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CORPS DE STYLE2018-05-04T18:10:25+00:00

UNA TREGUA

La Galería Alvaro Alcázar invita a la reflexión con Una tregua, una exposición colectiva que reúne a ochoa rtistas nacionales e internacionales: Eduardo Arroyo, Simon Edmondson, Kepa Garraza, Nigel Hall, Peter Krauskopf, Antonio Murado, Guillem Nadal y Udo Nöger.
En un período acelerado en el que priman la inmediatez y el bullicio, las obras presentes en esta muestra versan sobre la importancia del sosiego y la quietud tanto en la vida como en el arte. Para que las ideas se desarrollen deben reposar en un lugar metafórico donde no sólo tiene cabida la producción, sino también la meditación.
Así, los momentos de calma son necesarios para retomar cualquier actividad. A través de diferentes géneros, técnicas, temáticas y estilos los artistas de Una tregua proponen espacios físicos o mentales para encontrar el descanso o el silencio y evidencian que para moverse con fuerza es imprescindible parar.

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UNA TREGUA2018-04-19T12:23:40+00:00

GUILLEM NADAL

“Somos los bárbaros de nuestro hábitat” (Lengua de tierra, Iván de la Nuez).

La Galería Alvaro Alcázar presenta la exposición individual Guillem Nadal. Obras recientes, en la que reúne los últimos trabajos plásticos del artista mallorquín. En su exploración constante, Nadal propone cartografías sin principio ni fin que sitúan al espectador frente al abismo. El viaje es el hilo conductor de estas piezas que originan lugares experimentales de transición. El viaje, como vivencia y como metáfora, supone una huella que conecta con la memoria; un sedimento que invita a la introspección.
Así, los lienzos, las tablas y los papeles que se muestran constituyen elementos únicos de un laberinto por el que adentrarse. En las obras de esta exposición Guillem Nadal atiende a las indicaciones que ofreció Kavafis en el poema “Ítaca” y “pide que el camino sea largo”.

VER CATÁLOGO

GUILLEM NADAL2018-01-01T16:58:04+00:00