Exposiciones 2024

“The alter ego took my hand and brought me here”In this exhibition proposal by Jorge López Galería, Gema Polanco (Valencia 1992), introduces us to her world on a journey to introspection that reveals and honors our vulnerability, addressing self-care and health (mind-body) as a transformative journey towards the metamorphosis that self-knowledge requires. Here we talk about the rawness and the struggle to find peace in our minds, to break those destructive patterns that, often without realizing it, become embedded within us as a defense mechanism. In an act of brutal honesty, the artist creates suits of mutation, in which intuition and desires intertwine to build refuges, spaces of possibility, self-care, struggle and resistance. 

These costumes and spaces invite us to enter, to embrace what we have kept silent about, to travel that path that leads us to self-knowledge. Gema Polanco in “The alter ego took my hand and brought me here” screams, casts self-spells from the depths of her being, with all her contradictions. She invites us to join in, to shout alongside her, to mend and sew our wounds, to go through them, to embrace them to finally inhabit them. Let's lay together the foundations of a shared and own cosmic launch platform, where new forms of care - honest, accessible and peaceful - are possible. 

The alter ego took my hand and brought me here. It has come through the cracks, as if it has been biding its time. That mutation suit has merged with “Her”, the artist, and is now part of her being. It moves with an almost ghostly lightness, dragging behind it tendrils that lengthen and twist, wanting to be tentacles of some ancient sea creature. They slide and rise, and along their path figures appear like the teardrop and the star/flame, obsessions from their adolescence, born from the made-up silhouettes of Black and Glam Metal.

It is fascinating how graphite on paper and black and white photography, despite their apparent opposition, converge on an essential point. Two extremes that, instead of repelling each other, meet at a secret point, a kind of aesthetic conspiracy. The intriguing thing is that both operate in the realm of absence, of the unsaid, of what is barely hinted at, as if they were writing in a secret language, a writing made of silence.

There is a curious symmetry in the confrontation between graphite and black and white photography, as if both forms of art were reflected in an infinite mirror, where opposites do not cancel each other, but rather complement each other in an essential enigma: the writing of the silence, the translation of emptiness.

Joan Cardells' graphite, that black and elemental line, is not just a line on paper; It is a shadow that has decided to stop. It is a line that, by a whim of fate, refuses to move forward, containing within itself a scream that does not dare to come out. There is something fascinating in that silence, in that dark trace that, in reality, is light in its purest and most essential form. It is the shadow frozen in time, a petrified scream on the surface of the paper, an echo that persists in its muteness. As in Borges' mirrors, it is a trail of darkness that, in its contradiction, is also the purest form of light.

On the other hand, Manuel Vilariño's photography, writing of light in its most literal meaning, captures the moment in which the shadow seems to surrender. The light is deposited on the sensitive surface, but what is truly revealed is what is not there, what the light cannot touch. It is the paradox of the frozen moment: the more intense the illuminated areas, the more unfathomable the silence of the shadows becomes. These act as a mirror that reflects the moment when blackness seems to give way to light. But what really captures is not the light, but the shadow, what is outside the reach of the light. And it is there, in that paradox of the stopped moment, where photography becomes a light trap that traps the invisible, what remains out of focus.

There is something almost magical in these works, in those figures that are barely outlined in a stroke or in that light that, when overflowing, leaves behind an unbreakable shadow. It is in that intermediate space, in that no man's land where shadow and light intersect, where the work of Cardells and Vilariño meets and dialogues without words, in a language made of absences, of voids that, suddenly, transform in presences.

Drawing with graphite and photography are, basically, two ways of writing about nothing. Cardells casts a shadow; Vilariño catches a light. But both sculpt and model that emptiness that, in its own denial, becomes something tangible, almost palpable. It is a game, an artifice that, in its simplicity, hides infinite complexity.

Cardells' shadow drawing delves into the darkness to search for a truth that cannot be seen in broad daylight. The absence of color is a strategy, a trick to direct attention to what really matters: the structure, the form, that skeleton of shadows that gives body to reality. In that darkness, in that gray area, Cardells finds his own language, a language that speaks with silences, with suggestions that have more weight than any outright statement.

Vilariño, with his photography, does something similar, but in the opposite direction. It takes light, that light that reveals everything, and uses it to hide, to wrap the visible in a layer of mystery. His images, full of a serenity that seems to come from another world, emerge like ghosts from the darkness, not to scare, but to invite a state of contemplation, of reflection.

Cardells and Vilariño, in this game of shadows and lights, take us to a terrain where reality becomes ambiguous, where what matters is not what is shown, but what is hinted at, what is left out of the frame. "The Silence of the Shadows" is, then, more than a title, a kind of declaration of principles. A tribute to fragility, to subtlety, to that beauty that can only exist in the shadows, in the unsaid, in what remains to be discovered or, perhaps, will never be revealed.

Organized by 𝟭𝟴|𝟱𝟮 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗵𝘂𝗯 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 and Jorge López Galería

“Origin. Where friction occurs” It is a collective exhibition that develops a project at Jorge López Galería where three artists are invited, Ximena Ferrer (Lima 1994, lives in Berlin), Simón Sepúlveda (Santiago de Chile 1989, lives in Madrid) and Pablo Bellot (Alicante 1976), to break the aesthetic lines that usually make up the programming of this room. This change generates friction and confrontations with the misunderstood and the unknown. When language reaches its limits, the relationship with it is exposed to new forms.

In this way the public can find unrecognizable records compared to what is customary in this gallery's programming. A programmed space, where logic is broken and confusion, a change of energy, friction occurs

“Origin. Where friction occurs” addresses issues of identity, migration, inequality and the creative potential of conflict. This exhibition project arises from collaboration with artists and seeks to generate effects that are contingent and unpredictable.

Ximena: Reflection through reflection.

He builds his work from stories and memories, whether real or invented. His paintings are sensitive and energetic scenes in which the characters look directly into the eyes of the viewer. Alternating attention through synthetic paint, she compares and adjusts expressions until they appear the same, creating a connection with herself through the appearance of a girl. Ximena mixes autofiction, visceral sincerity and the exaggerated dramaturgy of soap operas to capture scenes on canvas, choosing vibrant colors that reaffirm their existence.

Simón Sepúlveda: The social observer

He configures his work as an observer, capturing human expression through different scenes of protest, parties or everyday relationships. His paintings break the logic of perspective, representing a space where we all intersect and are intervened by others. His works, bright and colorful, reflect his particular sensory perception and his relationship with people and the environment.

In his work he addresses political, social and territorial milestones through domestic objects, combining ancestral and contemporary practices, digital and pre-Columbian codes, as well as elements of daily life.

Pablo Bellot: The materialization of sound and the inability to communicate

It presents a series of works where ceramics and sound amalgamate, capturing the precise moment of a scream. His ceramics materialize sound and make the immaterial visible, manifesting the impossibility of communication for the contemporary individual.

Abstraction in his work is not an evasion, but rather a confrontation with the unknown. Their ceramics make sound visible while drowning it out, creating a tension between communication and its impossibility.

"Whoever leaves home has already returned" is a project that explores the sense of belonging and appropriation of a place during displacement. It consists of the collaboration of two prominent artists: Javier Bravo de Rueda (Callao, Peru, 1989 - resident in Bilbao) and María García Ibáñez (Madrid, 1978 - resident in Mexico City).

The project addresses the notion of "dwelling" from various perspectives. Travel and distance reveal the idea of ​​home, reflecting a constant search for elemental structures that refer to a nomadic body. The artists dialogue with the space they inhabit, marking their own routes that are traced during the trip. 

In María's works, lines solidify through clay, turning the act of drawing into an exercise in demarcation. The installation acts as a drawing that maps space, using ceramic pieces as vital traces full of geographical potential.

For his part, Javier examines the phenomena produced by multiculturalism and material and immaterial accumulation. His work delves into cultural syncretism and the constant search for identity in an increasingly hybrid world. 

The project proposes a look in two directions: from Latin America to Europe and vice versa, as well as from Europe to Latin America, generating a multicultural dialogue and a clash of perspectives.

Constant research, both theoretical and technical, of new materials is fundamental in the practice of both artists. 

Claudia Joskowicz presenta «Intersecciones», su primera exposición individual en Jorge López Galería.
La muestra reúne dos obras fundamentales en su trayectoria: la trilogía de videos «Recreaciones» (2007-2009) y la videoinstalación «Cada edificio de la Avenida Alfonso Ugarte – Según Ruscha» (2011). En estas obras, Joskowicz reinterpreta momentos clave de la historia boliviana, utilizando paisajes y espacios públicos como escenarios para reflexionar sobre la violencia, la memoria y la construcción de mitos nacionales.
En «Recreaciones», la artista reinterpreta tres momentos clave de la historia boliviana:
• «Arrastrado y descuartizado» (2007) recrea la ejecución pública de Túpac Katari, líder indígena que se rebeló contra el poder colonial español en el siglo XVIII.
• «Vallegrande, 1967» (2008) se centra en la presentación del cuerpo del Che Guevara a la prensa después de su asesinato en Bolivia en 1967 y en la lavandería donde se lo tendió. Ahora el pequeño edificio, cubierto de grafiti, se ha convertido en una de las paradas más veneradas en la ‘ruta turística del Che’ y, por tanto, parte del mito del Che.
• «Round and Round and Consumed by Fire» (2009) reimagina la muerte de Butch Cassidy y Sundance Kid, dos forajidos estadounidenses que se cree fueron abatidos en Bolivia a principios del siglo XX.
«Recreaciones» invita al espectador a reflexionar sobre la manera en que la memoria histórica se construye y se transmite a través de imágenes y relatos confrontandonos con la violencia, pero también con la posibilidad de resignificar el pasado y reescribir las narrativas oficiales.
«Cada edificio de la Avenida Alfonso Ugarte – Según Ruscha» (2011) es una videoinstalación de dos pantallas que toma como inspiración el libro fotográfico del pintor norteamericano Edward Ruscha «Every Building on the Sunset Strip» (1966). En una toma continua de 26 minutos, Joskowicz documenta la vida cotidiana de la Avenida Alfonso Ugarte en El Alto, una ciudad satélite de La Paz y uno de los centros urbanos más grandes y de más rápido crecimiento en Bolivia. El Alto es, también, uno de los principales sitios donde tuvieron lugar las violentas protestas relacionadas con el conflicto del gas boliviano de octubre 2003. La obra yuxtapone lo cotidiano con el conflicto social, revelando la realidad abigarrada y el genio del lugar, así como la cotidianeidad de los países en vías de desarrollo.
Claudia Joskowicz vive y trabaja entre Santa Cruz de la Sierra y Nueva York. Ha expuesto ampliamente en los Estados Unidos e internacionalmente y su trabajo se encuentra en las colecciones permanentes del Museo Guggenheim, NY; la Fundación Kadist, San Francisco, la Fundación Cisneros Fontanals, Miami, y el Banco Central de la República, Bogotá. Joskowicz ha recibido numerosos premios y becas los cuales incluyen una beca NYFA en cine / video, el premio Anonymous Was a Woman, una Comisión de Artistas de Media Carrera de la Fundación Cisneros Fontanals, una beca Guggenheim en cine / video y una beca Fulbright. Ha sido becaria en Yaddo, Latin American Roaming Art Project, Oaxaca, México, Sacatar Institute, Bahia, Brasil, el programa AIM en el Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY y las residencias Workspace y Cité des Arts, Paris del Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY. Una monografía de su trabajo entre el 2006 -2022 será publicada por la Editorial Turner, Madrid en 2024.

El proyecto para ARCO 2024, titulado “Entrelugares: Explorando la Perspectiva del Extranjero en Casa,” tiene como objetivo destacar tanto las visiones internas como las foráneas de nuestra comunidad y sus dinámicas. Este enfoque nos permite mostrar la riqueza de perspectivas que enriquecen nuestra comprensión y nuestra identidad como comunidad. Esta denominación reconoce la importancia de comprender cómo nos percibimos internamente y cómo somos percibidos desde fuera. Busca promover una comprensión más profunda de la complejidad de perspectivas en torno a la colonización y la descolonización, a través de la mirada de artistas nacidos en América del Sur (Latinoamérica) y residentes en Europa y Norteamérica. Todos ellos están a cierta distancia de su país de origen, lo que les permite actuar como observadores externos mientras mantienen vínculos con su realidad y origen específicos. A través de sus obras, exploran cómo se han interpretado y representado el paisaje, la cultura y la identidad. Esta perspectiva se asemeja al “entrelugar” que Edward Said teorizó, habiendo habitado él mismo un espacio intermedio entre Palestina y Nueva York, lo que le otorgó una perspectiva única en su trabajo comparativo entre culturas. Este proyecto para ARCO2024 nos invita a reflexionar sobre cómo las perspectivas foráneas pueden enriquecer nuestra comprensión de otras culturas y regiones del mundo. Además, resalta la importancia de la perspectiva externa en la construcción de la identidad cultural y la narrativa histórica, demostrando cómo esta influencia moldea la forma en que interpretamos y nos relacionamos con nuestra región.