Carolina Serrano at the studio

Carolina Serrano (Portugal, 1994) lives and works between Cologne and Lisbon.

Serrano's work and research revolves around the temporal dimension of sculpture. The artist's sculptural thinking collapses, recurrently, with the notions of light and shadow; with the ideas of destruction and appearance; and with the duality between interior and exterior and between full and empty space.

Serrano is interested in the concept of the restricted, inaccessible and therefore unknown “place”, and in the uncertainty of the extent of it. In recent years Carolina Serrano has been working almost exclusively with paraffin wax because of its plastic possibilities, as is the reflection of the light, but above all because of the theoretical and conceptual possibilities that this material can originate in the field of the observer's imagination. Serrano is also interested in the idea of a potential spiritual transmutation and transubstantiation of the sculptural object.

Carolina Serrano

I made a promise in eternity, 2021

Parafina

221 x 61.5cm

What inspires you when you create?

To my work, I’m trying to understand and think about what it is to be a human being, what it is to live in the world inside a body, and also, I’m trying to think about the notions of time and space and opposite ideas.

What are you working on recently?

I recently finished my first solo exhibition in Germany where I live now and in 2022 I’m going to prepare a group exhibition in Germany as well. Also a solo exhibition in Lisbon.

Carolina Serrano

Os amantes, 2020

Parafina

150 x 130cm

Tell us about your creative process

About my creative process, I normally go to my notebooks where I draw and write some ideas about mental images and sculptures that I see on my mind.

When I have an exhibition or project to work with I go to these notebooks and when the sculpture is ready to be alive (let’s say) I materialise it. Sometimes I do variations of the sculptures while in the studio. And my dreams and ideas are always present throughout my creative process.

You are participating for the first time in the fair, what do you expect from Art Madrid?

What I expect from Art Madrid’22 is that my work can be seen and appreciated. People can find the space and the time to look at my works, because in a fair there are a lot of booths and artworks, so I think that every visitor has to find the moment and create the relationship with the work that they like.

In your work you explore the duality between exterior and interior, full and empty space, and even light and shadow. Where does this interest in exploring and confronting opposites come from?

Opposites are completely connected with the notion of time and suffering, because time it's a human concept. Some, like Saint Augustin the medieval philosopher, believe that the evil of the world comes from the division from the real desire into conflicting desires. So the dispersion of the soul it is a division. Opposites are a great part of what it is to be a human being.

Carolina Serrano

Gume, 2021

Parafina

48 x 16cm

The color black in the history of art has always been related to some divine darkness, together with the spirituality that your works give off and the interest in an unknown and inaccessible “place”, are we in front of a search for your own type of religiosity?

I think art can make us come closer and recognize our most deepest places. So for a few seconds, I say seconds because we cannot count them, time is able to become still. And normally this happens with surprise and astonishment or with the unexpected. So yes, maybe we can reach that almost unknown and inaccessible place that we have inside us. Maybe art can have a type of spirituality and religiosity.

The artist Carolina Serrano participates for the first time in the fair with Galerie Alex Serra, together with the artists Katja Davar, Mário Macilau, René Tavares and Rui Sanches.

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.