With the current need to innovate and be up to date, it seems that certain materials, once traditional, are condemned to oblivion. Gone are the natural pigments made by the artist himself and linen cloths on which the painter applies his primer mixture are increasingly scarce.

However, some creators are reluctant to leave aside elements that have always been present in the art world and in which they find their source of inspiration, as it is the case with patterned fabrics. As a kind of revival of remnants taken from the memory chest, the floral motifs and textures offered by these elements represent a return to an earlier, more traditional era, in which everything demanded time and things went at a lower speed.

Pierre Louis Geldenhuys

Mágica I, 2017

Tessellation and wild silk in light box

95 x 95cm

Pierre Louis Geldenhuys

Nenúfares, 2017

Wild silk and light box

111.5 x 111.5cm

This is the case of Pierre Louis Geldenhuys, who defines himself as a textile artist, as well as being an haute couture designer. His work is an elegant combination of transparencies, textures, volumes and light boxes to create incredible contrast effects that make drawings with the fabric. It is easy to abstract oneself and think that we are before pieces painted on wood board or methacrylate, however, each stroke and shape is a fold of cloth meticulously folded and designed to compose a structure of silk, linen or cotton.

Another artist clearly influenced by the fashion world and who incorporates those references to her works is Paz Barreiro. Her pieces convey that ideal atmosphere of the summertime in which afternoons passed by on the shore of a beach or reading on the grass. But the positivity and joy of her compositions are due to a large extent to the choice of backgrounds, which resemble collages of cutouts superimposed of floral and dotted patterns, something that recalls the aesthetics of the 50s.

By using printed fabrics on the wall and the body of her models, Cecilia Paredes builds an infinite discourse to reflect on the relationship of the human being with nature. Some of her most representative photographs are the result of a previous creation calculated, measured and staged, from which the image remains. With this game of positions between the different planes, Cecilia manages to mimic the figures with their surroundings, as if they were one more element of that colourful and exuberant nature of the fabrics she uses.

The work of Ana Teresa Barboza develops among threads and embroidery frames, with needle and thimble. This artist has explored different themes with a powerful visual impact, despite using such modest materials in her work. The concern for the natural environment, domestic violence, urban growth, are some of the projects of this Peruvian artist who extends the possibilities of these materials and gives them a new meaning.

The CEART opens this Thursday, November 14th in the room A an exhibition dedicated to this master of photography, which will be open to the public until February 9th. The show includes one of the artist's latest projects, focused on the hard work carried out by the miners of Serra Pelada, an open gold mine in the heart of Brazil where employees daily risked their lives.

Immigration, poverty, marginal life, slave labour, man's relationship with the land, the use of natural resources... are issues that have always fascinated Salgado. From the beginning of his career as a photographer, his work has opted to give visibility to the most disadvantaged groups and to create with his images a vivid and impressive visual story without fakes. With a raw black and white, this author's work transits between photo-reportage and naturalistic photography.

And the idea that permeates all his work is human dignity. Salgado portrays employees, miners and gatherers from a purely humanistic approach that wants to value their integrity, their strength and their resilience.

“If you photograph a human, so that he is not represented in a noble way, there is no reason to take the picture. That is my way of seeing things.”

Salgado entered this discipline long after completing his studies in economics between Brazil and the United States, and a doctorate in statistics in France. But in 1973 his life took a turn, and he decided to start his career as a photographer. He achieved to work at the Gamma Agency and Magnum Photos for more than 15 years until in 1994 he founded his own agency “Amazonas Imagen”.

With the “Gold” project, the photographer portrays a harsh reality that takes place in the Serra Pelada mine, a name given to a totally devastated and anarchically excavated mining enclave, the world's largest open-pit gold mine, through which more than 50,000 people have passed. In the heat of the legends about the mysterious “El Dorado”, the enthusiasm for this precious metal led to the development of strenuous exploitation practices for the workers and to originate tales of grief and glory, of human victory and defeat between the soil, the tunnels and the cargo baskets.

The CEART exhibition brings together Salgado's full portfolio in his characteristical black and white and large-format photographs that leave no one indifferent.