SPECIFIC IMAGES FOR ELUSIVE TIMES
Feb 20, 2019
art madrid
Paulo Nunes-Arte Contemporânea, Bea Villamarín, Cornión y Montsequi galleries
Stopping, taking some time and being surprised. It seems a triviality but, either by imperatives or obligations, commitments or frustrated desires and, above all, by that epidemic of the 21st century that is the lack of time, usually, we do not calmly appreciate the things that surround us. This common situation especially affects the contemplation of art, which is also perverted in this heterogeneous era of frivolous cultural tourism, "biennalism", blockbusters and surreptitious advertising.
In the proposal that the Paulo Nunes-Contemporary Art (Vila Franca de Xira) Gallery presents, fictions and realities are equally emphasized. On the one hand, the nostalgic sculptures by Manuel Patinha and paintings by Ana Pais Oliveira, these last ones seducing us into the indeterminate scenarios of abstract forms, particularly strange and seductive. At first glance, the spaces imagined by the artist are icy, cold, but through a deeper observation, you can also reach a greater sense of warmth. Everything depends on what it transmits to each viewer.
On the other hand, specific realities are expressed in this gallery’s booth with the work by Mário Macilau, an autochthonous photographer from Maputo (Mozambique) whose objective is to make the sociopolitical situation of his country visible. A perfect and necessary example within the debate of Otherness, because "the Other" can, must and knows how to represent itself. Beautiful and classic work in black and white that tells us about the current circumstances of millions of people, something that we sense or see from a comfortable distance but that we really do not know. Another reality is that reflected by the also photographer Rui Dias Monteiro, more interested in the detail, the fragment, in the intuitive. Any stone in the middle of the road can initiate or end a story, and surely the literary side of this artist is what explains that his gaze stops in these motives.
Another type of especially narrative realism is the one cultivated by Alejandro Quincoces, an artist presented by the Bea Villamarín (Gijón) gallery. His work, which is located in the mysteriously natural and urban settings, is usually characterized by being very cinematographic, usually melancholic and even catastrophic; even in their broader urban views, dystopian future worlds are predicted, but not because of this are impossible. The world of another of the artists, Carlos Tárdez, is explicitly more critical; everything that his small format sculptures in polychrome resin have, becomes enormous in its provocative forms and satirical messages. Perhaps it is precisely the size what gives his works the greatest impact, both visually and emotionally.
At the Villamarín's booth, you can also enjoy the work of Mònica Subidé, as rich in artistic references as in its taste for the oneiric story, both enigmatic and seductive -traits that can be appreciated twice as the artist also will be represented in the Yiri Arts space. Narratives much more hermetic are those the works by Patricia Escutia offer, a sort of palimpsests composed of notes, traces, indecipherable calligraphies that show the negation of language, the difficulties we have in our communication; abstract writing for an elusive time. Framed in abstraction is the work by Candela Muniozguren, an artist of whom the gallery will present a selection of her characteristic geometric sculpture of anchors.
Also, the proposal of the Cornión (Gijón) gallery includes a solid bet for the most abstract geometric work: done by Javier Victorero. From an intense knowledge of compositional harmony and balance, the artist plays with straight lines and colour properties, in some cases intimately connecting with the creation of great geometric artists such as Eusebio Sempere. Similarly, the investigation of the materials characteristics is something he shares with the sculptor Amancio (González), more interested, though, in a kind of figurative abstraction.
Cornión closes its selection for Art Madrid with the painting, "atemporal and true", by Miguel Galano: a chant to the Asturian land, full of nostalgia and the most honest simplicity. These solitary and calm scenarios, invite to shelter or empathy; they are places in which we can clearly stop our accelerated vital rhythm and contemplate them from a more serene way of life.
In the Montsequi Art Gallery's (Madrid) booth there will also be a place for contemplation, especially through the bronze and iron sculpture by Mireia Serra, whose characters, as the gallerists point out, "show the beauty and the mystery of small moments full of emotions and feelings of the journey of life: women taking their time to decide at a crossroads of their lives, men enjoying their moments of relaxation, small pleasures, moments to pause... ". "Placeres" (2018), "Fuente Paraíso" (2018) or "Fuego" (2018) are some of the abstractions, vitalistic and mostly naturalistic, that Montsequi will present from the artist Horacio Fernández Munizaga. Along with his work, a selection by Rodrigo Nevsky these paintings, more aligned with contemporaneity, the kind full of marketing and icons such as the giant Apple, and that Nevsky works with a language that includes abstraction and figuration.
Let's take a moment, let's go into the specific stories and emotions proposed by the artists and then decide with more conscience whether they convince us or not. Let us rest from the weight of everyday life.
