DDR Art Gallery is participating for the second consecutive year in the One Project program of Art Madrid. “Variaciones" by Virgina Rivas and "Avatares" by Roberto López can be seen at the Fair as part of the project "Salvajes. La cage aux fauves", curated by Fernando Gómez de la Cuesta.

The art works that the artist Virginia Rivas (Madrid,1981) will present in Art Madrid are part of a wide project called "Variaciones", in which the artist investigates about the color in our environment as well as the perception that we have of the same one depending on our emotional state and of the political and social situation of each one of us. Rivas analyzes our reality through colors.

The artist from Extremadura experiments with painting from a classical pictorial process, investigating forms and matter through abstraction and gesture. Rivas also relies on other artistic media such as photography in its various forms (polaroids, slides, etc.), video, light boxes or neon.

Virginia Rivas, Estudio AVNT, 2019

Virginia Rivas incorporates in some of her works small written texts, generally fragmented and sometimes practically illegible, but which are part of a narrative discourse that is totally intentional on the part of the artist, who integrates the graphics of the words as another plastic element of the composition. The expressiveness of the gesture, the colour, the light and the words are part of the abstraction inherent in her work, through which Rivas investigates intimacy and collectivity, establishing a fundamental game in which space and the spectator are indispensable.

The tandem of artists participating in Art Madrid with DDR Art Gallery is completed by Roberto López Martín (Madrid, 1982). "Los niños tele, el nuevo homo videns" includes a series of works with which he participates in "Salvajes". The artist works with different plastic languages that range from his studies in graphite and wax to his collages, present in another series such as "Fluffy Children". In Art Madrid, the artistic proposal is centred on his sculptures, known as "avatars" worked in fibreglass, resin and other materials.

Virginia Rivas, Estudio GTCCR, 2019

In "Avatares", López Martín focuses on childhood, on the innocence of the child when he begins to create a relationship with the objects around him, giving his toys imaginary values and personalizing them in a subjective way. This relationship, according to the artist, "is distorted when corporations enter to participate establishing uses and forms of consumption on the different toys, making these pre-format a way to relate to the world of children".

Roberto López's sinister avatars fight against all manipulation by the toy industry and in his "ready made" pieces he reconstructs and assembles pieces he finds in the garbage or selects consciously using his sense of humor and his most perverse sensibility.

RLM

Avatar Cowboy, 2017

Tela sobre fibra de vidrio y resina

150 x 30cm

DDR Art Gallery focuses its efforts on promoting the work of both established and emerging Latin American artists. In the virtual space of DDR Art Gallery, we find works from almost all disciplines: photography, sculpture, collage, illustration and urban art. DDR Art Gallery were pioneers in the direct sale of contemporary art on the Instagram platform, and without a doubt, the presence both online and in social networks, is the basis of the project since its inception. Its main motto is: "If you're not on Google, you don't exist."

RLM

Avatar El Elegido, 2016

Tela sobre fibra de vidrio y resina

150 x 30cm

Since it was founded in 2006, the gallery maintains two lines to promote the work of its artists: online sales and attendance at national and international fairs, with a clear focus on the contemporary art market. A third line of promotion and sale is the space of Theredoom Gallery in Madrid, where DDR Art Gallery organizes individual and thematic exhibitions. In addition to Rivas and López Martín, DDR promotes the work of six other artists: Annita Klimt, David Delgado Ruiz, David Heras Verde, Evangelina Esparza, José A. Vallejo and Raúl Casassola.

The work of Julian Manzelli (Chu) (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1974) is situated within a field of research in which art adopts methodologies close to scientific thinking without renouncing its poetic and speculative dimension. His practice is structured as an open process of experimentation, in which the studio functions as a laboratory: a space for trial, error, and verification, oriented less toward the attainment of certainties than toward the production of new forms of perception. In this sense, his work enters into dialogue with an epistemology of uncertainty, akin to philosophical traditions that understand knowledge as a process of becoming rather than closure.

Manzelli explores interstitial zones, understood as spaces of transit and transformation. These ambiguous areas are not presented as undefined but as potential—sites where categories dissolve, allowing the emergence of hybrid, almost alchemical configurations that reprogram the gaze. Geometry, far from operating as a normative system, appears tense and destabilized. His precarious constructions articulate a crossing between intuition and reason, play and engineering, evoking a universal grammar present in both nature and symbolic thought. Thus, Manzelli’s works do not represent the world but rather transfigure it, activating questions rather than offering closed answers.

Avícola. Escultura magnética. Madera, imanes, laca automotriz y acero. 45 x 25 cm. 2022.

Science and its methods inspire your process. What kinds of parallels do you find between scientific thinking and artistic creation?

Science and art are two disciplines that I believe share a great deal and are undoubtedly deeply interconnected. I am interested in that point of intersection, and although they are often placed in opposition, I think they share a common origin. Both involve a continuous search, a need for answers that stems from curiosity rather than certainty, and that often—or in many cases—leads both artists and scientists into uncomfortable, uncertain positions, pushing them out of their comfort zones. I believe this is a fundamental and very compelling aspect shared by these two disciplines, which in some way define us as human beings.

In this sense, both share experimentation as a core axis of their practice. Trial and error, testing, and the entire process of experimentation are what generate development. In my case, this applies directly to the studio: I experience it as a laboratory where different projects are developed and materials are tested. It is as if one formulates a hypothesis and then puts it to the test—materials, procedures, forms, colors—and outcomes emerge. These results are not meant to be verified, but rather, in art, I believe their function is to generate new modes of perception, new ways of seeing, and new experiences.

Receptor Lunar #01. Ensamble de Madera Reciclada torneada. 102 x 26 x 26 cm. De la serie Fuerza orgánica. 2023.

You work within the interstices between the natural and the artificial, the figurative and the abstract. What interests you about these ambiguous zones, and what kinds of knowledge emerge from them?

I have always been quite restless, and that has led me to immerse myself in different fields and disciplines. I believe there is a special richness in interstitial spaces—in movement back and forth, in circulation between media. These spaces have always drawn my attention: ambiguous places, hybrid zones. There is something of an amphibious logic here—amphibians as entities that carry and transmit information, that share, that cross boundaries and membranes. In my case, this is closely linked to what I understand as freedom, especially at a time marked by categorization, labeling, and a profound distortion of the very concept of freedom.

On another level, more metaphysical in nature, it is within the mixture—within that blending—that the living energy of creating something new appears, which is undoubtedly a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human. It is as if “one thing becomes something else outside the mold.” This interaction is necessary to break structures, to build new ones, to transmute—to undergo something almost alchemical. I believe fixation is the enemy. In a way, ambiguity is what allows us to reprogram our gaze and generate new points of view.

De la serie Naturaleza orgánica. Madera torneada recuperada de podas de sequía y rezagos de construcción. 2025.

Movement, repetition, and sequence appear as visual strategies in your work. What role does seriality play in the generation of meaning?

Movement, repetition, and sequence are very present in my work. I have a long background in animation, and in some way that interest begins to filter into the other disciplines in which I work. Thus, movement also appears in my visual art practice.

Seriality is a way of thinking about time and of introducing a certain narrative and sense of action into the work, while at the same time conditioning the viewer’s experience. It invites the viewer to try to decipher repetition as a kind of progression. I am particularly interested in more abstract forms of narrative. In this type of narrative, where there is no clear figuration, repetition begins to establish a pulse, a “beat” that marks the passage of time. What is interesting, I think, is the realization that repetition is not exactly duplication, and that what seems identical begins to mutate over time, through rhythm, or through its own unfolding history.

De la serie Naturaleza orgánica. Madera torneada recuperada de podas de sequía y rezagos de construcción. 2025.

You work with geometric and constructive systems. What role does geometry play as a symbolic language within your practice?

Geometry is present in my work in multiple forms and dimensions, generating different dynamics. Generally, I tend to put it into crisis, into tension. When one engages closely with my works, it becomes clear that constructions based on imprecise and unstable balance predominate. I am not interested in symmetry or exactness, but rather in a dynamic construction that proposes a situation. I do not conceive of geometry as a rigid system.

I believe this is where a bridge is established between the intuitive and the rational, between playfulness and engineering—those unexpected crossings. At the same time, geometry functions as a code, a language that connects us to a universal grammar present in nature, in fractals, and that undoubtedly refers to symbolism. It is there that an interesting portal opens, where the work begins to re-signify itself and becomes a process of meaning-making external to itself, entirely uncertain. The results of my works are not pieces that represent; rather, I believe they are pieces that transfigure and, in doing so, generate questions.

WIP. Madera torneada recuperada de podas de sequía y rezagos de contrucción. 2022.

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

In terms of planning, it depends greatly on the project and even on the day. Some projects, due to their scale or complexity, require careful planning, especially when they involve the participation of other people. In many cases, planning is undoubtedly essential.

That said, in the projects I do plan, I am always interested in leaving space for improvisation, where chance or the unfolding of the process itself can come into play. I believe this is where interesting things begin to emerge, and it is important not to let them pass by. Personally, I would find it very boring to work on pieces whose outcome I already know in advance. For me, the realization of each work is an uncertain journey; I do not know where it will lead, and I believe that is where its potential lies—not only for me, but also for the work itself and for the viewer’s experience.