Art Madrid'23 – A LOOK AT CONTEMPORARY GEOMETRY

The work of Ana Pais Oliveira, Iván Baizán and Rubén Fernández Castón starts from a shared interest in geometry and its plastic translation. The proposal of these creators conveys a clear interest in the construction of new physical spaces with which to body their concern for the environment and the role of the individual in the urban environment. On many occasions, it is about proposing alternative buildings, imaginary architectures that defy natural laws; in others, giving way to a geometric abstraction where the volumes are defined by contrasts of colour.

Rubén Fernández Castón

Entrelíneas III, 2016

Acrylic on wood

55 x 42cm

Ana Pais Oliveira

Heavy drawing #26, 2017

Mixed media on cardboard

70 x 50cm

Iván Baizán

XV (de la serie "Usted no está aquí"), 2018

Serigrafía, acrílico, poliestireno y papel montado en caja de madera (obra enmarcada en caja y cristal)

40 x 30cm

If something characterises contemporary geometry, is its ambition to exploit the plastic possibilities of the materials to generate the illusion of volume and depth from the linearity of the flat support. It is, in reality, a hand extended to the viewer, an invitation to transcend the physical limitations of our three-dimensional space to give free rein to alternative realities, to floating constructions, to buildings without support points, to impossible materials.

This is one of the strong points of the work of Iván Baizán. The pieces of the collection "In the limits of the structure" develops one of the most paradigmatic facets of this artist, specialised in engraving and printing. His work offers urban cartography based on the superposition of planes and the communicative power of colour. In the form of exquisite wooden boxes, his last works are like windows open to a new universe, the one where man has taken the reins of his time and space, where it is not necessary to live corseted by inherited forms and unbreakable laws. Its floating architectures pose a paradox in a perfect aesthetic balance that combines materials, design and staging.

Iván Baizán

VI (de la serie "Usted no está aquí"), 2017

Serigrafía, acrílico, poliestireno y papel montado en caja de madera (obra enmarcada en caja y cristal)

100 x 80cm

Iván Baizán

II (de la serie "Usted no está aquí"), 2017

Serigrafía, acrílico, poliestireno y papel montado en caja de madera (obra enmarcada en caja y cristal)

100 x 80cm

The Portuguese Ana Pais Oliveira follows a similar line. Her work is a compendium of structures where architecture is very present. All her work conveys that tricky balance between the colourist abstraction and the game of textures in a display of proposals that go from painting on canvas to collage on cardboard. Constructions of the imagination that make their way around two fundamental ideas: line and colour. The geometry of Ana Pais is solid and wide; it expands in ambitious formats and with friendly tones that transfer to the support the utopia of the impossible architectures.

Ana Pais Oliveira

Heavy drawing #35, 2017

Mixed media on cardboard

70 x 50cm

Ana Pais Oliveira

Heavy drawing #32, 2017

Mixed media on cardboard

70 x 50cm

Ana Pais Oliveira

Heavy drawing #40, 2017

Mixed media on cardboard

70 x 50cm

For his part, Rubén Fernández Castón exceeds the limits of traditional painting to create works that approach sculpture. His most recent work applies geometry to pieces that develop on two sides and participate in the double game of illusion, the "meta-geometry", inside and outside the work itself. With flat and clean colour strokes, the contours are created by opposition, with a dance of contrasts that risks with shocking tones, without overlapping, neat, concise and pure.

Rubén Fernández Castón

Entrelíneas IV, 2016

Acrylic on wood

59 x 40cm

Rubén Fernández Castón

Entrelíneas V, 2016

Acrylic on wood

60 x 40cm

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In the year 2020 in the heart of Barcelona a wandering gallery was born, the same one that in February 2021 would debut at Art Madrid with an exhibition proposal focused on contemporary portraits; with this subject matter it would manage to create a powerful dialogue between artwork and audience and make the seal Inéditad remain in the history of the event that contained it.

Jean Carlos Puerto. Protección. Oil and copper leaf on wood. 60 x 48. 2021. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Since that first time and until today, the wandering gallery has managed to build projects on otherness, has repositioned in the spotlight the discourses on the LGTBIQ+ collective, has consolidated a group of artists who share its principles of resilience and empathy and the best thing is that it continues to bet from the professionalism and commitment to give voice to the difference.

Claudio Petit-Laurent.. El Joven de la Perla. Oil on wood. 30 x 30 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Inéditad Gallery, thanks to its founder Luis López, its collaborators and the infinite possibilities manifested in the works of the artists it represents, is a gallery that has demonstrated its capacity and courage to stimulate the sensibility of the public through art and seduce a generation that moves between the glass window and the analogical story. Inéditad is a nomadic gallery that has gathered around it a community of artists and has moved the context with exhibition projects that think about LGTBIQ+ art without prejudices.

Pepa Salas Vilar. Las marcas del arcoiris. Oil on canvas. 40 x 50 cm. 2022. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Pride and Prejudice was inaugurated. An exhibition that brings together the works of sixteen artists: Abel Carrillo, Alex Domènech, Carlos Enfedaque, Silvia Flechoso, Jamalajama, Daniel Jaén, Claudio Petit-Laurent, Jean Carlos Puerto, Fernando Romero, Pablo Rodríguez, Pepa Salas Vilar, Jack Smith, Pablo Sola, Bran Sólo, Elia Tomás and Utürüo. Painting, illustration, photography and digital art are the manifestations that bring into dialogue around fifty neatly threaded pieces, in a discursive line that discusses such a latent phenomenon as discrimination. To achieve this, the artists invited to the exhibition question themselves whether: Does discrimination exist within the LGTBIQ+ collective?

Pride and Prejudice Official Poster. Image courtesy of the gallery.

With approaches on and from the body, the proposal invites to celebrate diversity, proposes to question and self-question the prejudices and attitudes of society against the collective. Pride and Prejudice is a space for dialogue about the constructs imposed on us by society. It is also an oasis in which to deconstruct with tolerance and respect the subjectivities that sometimes prevent us from approaching the production of the participating artists, simply because "the beautiful" does not fit in an androgynous body. The subjugation of stereotypes are pressed with determination to find the beauty of diversity in other palpable facets of reality.

Pablo Sola. All men are dogs. Photography. 2014. Image courtesy of the gallery.

Throughout these three years Inéditad has stimulated the vindictive projection towards bad practices, has questioned estates around the LGTBIQ+ body and the most admirable thing, is that these capacities have resurfaced around the dialogue and the visual narrative of the stories that are told from the visual: Artworks that are people, art that is, per se, humanity. Overcome impositions and accept what is different in order to continue fighting against homophobia, biphobia, lesbophobia or transphobia and defend the equal rights that all the acronyms of the collective deserve in our community.

That's Pride and Prejudice: One creature, the happiest in the world. And maybe other projects and other people have said it - or felt it - before, but none so fairly.

Silvia Flechoso. Hola, soy maricón. Oil on canvas. 73 x 54 cm. 2023. Image courtesy of the gallery.

From June 8th until June 22nd you can visit Pride and Prejudice. Carrer de Palau núm. 4. Canal Gallery space. Barcelona.