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.

Ana Pais Oliveira

Ar livre #8, 2018

Técnica mixta sobre tela y contraplacado marítimo

135 x 200cm

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.

Mário Macilau

Sem título 1, 2017

Hahnemühle paper

80 x 120cm

Rui Dias Monteiro

Nas paredes e no chão, 2015

Photography

15 x 20cm

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.

Alejandro Quincoces

Polluted cityscape, 2018

Oil on board

125 x 195cm

Carlos Tárdez

Tasador, 2017

Polychrome resin

10 x 10cm

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.

Mònica Subidé

Los hijos del rey bufón y sus buitres, 2018

Oil, pencil and collage on wood

80 x 110cm

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.

Javier Victorero

En el jardín VIII, 2018

Acrylic on canvas

180 x 150cm

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.

Miguel Galano

Nieve en el Monticu, 2018

Oil on linen

46 x 53cm

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.

Horacio Fernández Munizaga

Placeres, 2018

Acrylic on canvas

92 x 92cm

Rodrigo Nevsky

Apple fondo azul, 2018

Acrylic on canvas

30 x 30cm

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.

The practice of the collective DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) is situated at a fertile intersection between contemporary art, ecological thinking, and a philosophy of experience that shifts the emphasis from production to attention. Faced with the visual and material acceleration of the present, their work does not propose a head-on opposition, but rather a sensitive reconciliation with time, understood as lived duration rather than as a measure. The work thus emerges as an exercise in slowing down, a pedagogy of perception where contemplating and listening become modes of knowledge.

In the work of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro), the territory does not function as a framework but rather as an agent. The landscape actively participates in the process, establishing a dialogical relationship reminiscent of certain eco-critical currents, in which subjectivity is decentralized and recognized as part of a broader framework. This openness implies an ethic of exposure, which is defined as the act of exposing oneself to the climate, the elements, and the unpredictable, and this means accepting vulnerability as an epistemological condition.

The materials—fabrics, pigments, and footprints—serve as surfaces for temporary inscriptions and memories, bearing the marks of time. The initial planning is conceived as an open hypothesis, allowing chance and error to act as productive forces. In this way, the artistic practice of DIMASLA (Diana + Álvaro) articulates a poetics of care and being-with, where creating is, above all, a profound way of feeling and understanding nature.

In a historical moment marked by speed and the overproduction of images, your work seems to champion slowness and listening as forms of resistance. Could it be said that your practice proposes a way of relearning time through aesthetic experience?

Diana: Yes, but more than resistance or vindication, I would speak of reconciliation—of love. It may appear slow, but it is deliberation; it is reflection. Filling time with contemplation or listening is a way of feeling. Aesthetic experience leads us along a path of reflection on what lies outside us and what lies within.

The territory does not appear in your work as a backdrop or a setting, but as an interlocutor. How do you negotiate that conversation between the artist’s will and the voice of the place, when the landscape itself participates in the creative process?

Álvaro: For us, the landscape is like a life partner or a close friend, and naturally this intimate relationship extends into our practice. We go to visit it, to be with it, to co-create together. We engage in a dialogue that goes beyond aesthetics—conversations filled with action, contemplation, understanding, and respect.

Ultimately, in a way, the landscape expresses itself through the material. We respect all the questions it poses, while at the same time valuing what unsettles us, what shapes us, and what stimulates us within this relationship.

The Conquest of the Rabbits I & II. 2021. Process.

In your approach, one senses an ethic of exposure: exposing oneself to the environment, to the weather, to others, to the unpredictable. To what extent is this vulnerability also a form of knowledge?

Diana: For us, this vulnerability teaches us a great deal—above all, humility. When we are out there and feel the cold, the rain, or the sun, we become aware of how small and insignificant we are in comparison to the grandeur and power of nature.

So yes, we understand vulnerability as a profound source of knowledge—one that helps us, among many other things, to let go of our ego and to understand that we are only a small part of a far more complex web.

Sometimes mountains cry too. 2021. Limestone rockfall, sun, rain, wind, pine resin on acrylic on natural cotton canvas, exposed on a blanket of esparto grass and limestone for two months.. 195 cm x 130 cm x 3 cm.

Your works often emerge from prolonged processes of exposure to the environment. Could it be said that the material—the fabrics, the pigments, the traces of the environment—acts as a memory that time writes on you as much as you write on it?

Álvaro: This is a topic for a long conversation, sitting on a rock—it would be very stimulating. But if experiences shape people’s inner lives and define who we are in the present moment, then I would say yes, especially in that sense.

Leaving our comfort zone has led us to learn from the perseverance of plants and the geological calm of mountains. Through this process, we have reconciled ourselves with time, with the environment, with nature, with ourselves, and even with our own practice. Just as fabrics hold the memory of a place, we have relearned how to pay attention and how to understand. Ultimately, it is a way of deepening our capacity to feel.

The fox and his tricks. 2022. Detail.

To what extent do you plan your work, and how much space do you leave for the unexpected—or even for mistakes?

Diana: Our planning is limited to an initial hypothesis. We choose the materials, colours, places, and sometimes even the specific location, but we leave as much room as possible for the unexpected to occur. In the end, that is what it is really about: allowing nature to speak and life to unfold. For us, both the unexpected and mistakes are part of the world’s complexity, and within that complexity we find a form of natural beauty.