Art Madrid'23 – EVA LOOTZ, AN EXHIBITION IN MAGIC LANDS

Eva Lootz at the CGAC contemplating one of her works next to Román Rodríguez (making a photo with her mobile) - PHOTO: Xunta

 

 

Eva Lootz (Vienna, 1940) is an Austrian plastic artist residing in Spain since 1967. Her main concern is the relationship between matter and language from different points of view. The beginnings of his career were defined by the use of ephemeral materials such as sheets of cotton or earth and their work with liquids binders such as wax or synthetic glue. With this it goes back to the origins of the devaluation of the matter with respect to the idea. This issue is extrapolated in parallel with the degradation of women in many cultures.

 

 

Photo of the exhibition

 

 

Raw materials and their organic use explain the process of extraction and treatment of minerals, also cultural behavior and the footprint in the landscape and language. One of its virtues is to detect little visible traces. In 1994 he received the National Plastic Arts Prize in Spain, taking that date of reference his work evolved towards the incorporation of sound in some of his installations. Also the making of videos brings you closer to the audiovisual world.

 

One of his highlights is the importance of drawing and the weight of this in his work along with the notebooks. One of the first fields that he experienced at the pictorial level was the color field, also known as color fields. Later he took another path more focused on art povera, minimal and land art.

 

 

Photo of the exhibition

 

 

The exhibition that is presented at the Galician Center for Contemporary Art is not summarized as an anthology because it would be a titanic task to cover all the work of this artist who is still active. But what does your Commissioner Alicia Murria does is select a part, dating from the 70s to the present and show a small common denominator of his entire career. These selected objects show how it suppresses color and seeks a more spiritual character by distorting the conception of object that we have established.

 

 

Eva Lootz, Xunta de Galicia

 

 

The leap into three-dimensionality is produced organically and naturally, as all of Lootz's work, the key component is to stimulate the senses. The architecture and the facilities frame all this artistic idea that tries to transmit us. His knowledge of the ancient cultures and the relationship with the elements make the language of this exhibition articulate in a light and pleasant way. The geographical point chosen gives us the opportunity to see this artist in a magical land, as is Galicia.

 

 

 

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.