CURRENT EXHIBITION
“Cara a Cara”
Samuel Salcedo and Sito Mújica
For its season opening, it is presented a review of the portrait genre by Catalan artists Samuel Salcedo (Barcelona, 1975) and Sito Mújica (Sabadell, Barcelona, 1971).
On the one hand, the sculptures of Samuel Salcedo invite us to explore human psychology, using gestures (grimaces, laughter, mockery) as a means of questioning today’s society. These are anonymous portraits in which the artist eliminates any narrative clues beyond the character’s own expression, whose gender, age, or race we do not know. This aspect gives each sculpture a universal character.
The ironic tone of his work contrasts with its monumental nature, which, combined with his technical excellence, control of materials, and meticulous finishes, often ends up reminding us of classical sculpture.
Sito Mújica constructs paintings from digital images, imitating the half-point weave, as Chuck Close, Roy Lichtenstein, and Sigmar Polke did before him. In addition, figurative elements are integrated with plastic icons that evoke abstract paintings, creating a simultaneous representation or multi-layered planes. Although unique, the works are the result of the appropriation of practices and representations from different sources, many of them based on the classical statuary of the Louvre Museum. The result is a hybridization between Greco-Roman iconography, contemporary fashion, and pop graphic culture.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
“Common People” by Natalia Umpiérrez and Nuria Figueiredo
This duo offers two interpretations of reality: while one is irreverent, sarcastic, and vulnerable, the other seeks to evade conscious faculties in order to escape into a world full of mysticism and fantasy.
On the one hand, Natalia Umpiérrez (Pontevedra, 1982) embodies our fears, desires, and frustrations with a great sense of humor. Using paper and ceramics as her medium, she presents her chimerical characters that oscillate between the burlesque and the phantasmagorical. Grotesque beings, such as a ramshackle trophy with eyes, nose, and mouth, that ironically comment on the concept of “success” and the fear of failure. With a more lyrical character, Nuria Figueiredo (Ourense, 1986) envelops us in a dreamlike universe with her ceramics, where human beings blend in with the animal kingdom, giving rise to hybrid, magical characters full of mysticism. Miniatures conceived as votive offerings, altarpieces, or a kind of altar pay tribute here to the atavistic, initiating us into a secular ceremony that represents the triumph of reverie.
“A Memoria da Cor” by Xaquín Chaves
“Endless Game” by Diego Cabezas
“Lo que cabe en una almendra” by Lara Pintos
With her solo exhibition “Lo que cabe en una almendra” (“What fits inside an almond”), Lara Pintos shows a very personal vision of the city of Santiago de Compostela. A glance through different spots in the historic center that evoke the artist’s own experiences. Outdoor spaces of transit, such as alleys or arcades, coexist with scenes set in warmer locations, such as the intimacy of a café, all of them real settings that are found in the heart of Santiago, to be more precise, inside its medieval “almond”.
“Nada sucede dos veces” by Héctor Francesch, Manuel Moranta and Miguel Auria
«Nada sucede dos veces” (“Nothing happens twice”), an Héctor Francesch (A Coruña, 1977), Manuel Moranta (Tarragona,1979) and Miguel Auria (Ourense, 1985) exhibition appeals to the moments’, shape’s and word’s exceptionality.
With a formal tendency towards geometry, the artist Hector Francesch shoes how his own universe slips the 2D plane of the canvas to reach the 3D. On the other hand, the Tarragona-born artist Manuel Moranta shows a primitive style that seeks the maximum simplicity. To do so, he mixes the aphorism, conceptual drawing, humour, advertising language, object-trouveé and the world of signs. Starting off from musci, Miguel Auria will stand out for the intangible and passage of time with photography that seekks to trascend it, inmortalizing the ephemeral
“Inner Garden” by Lula Goce
“Inner Garden”, the exhibition that we present at the Dupla gallery on the occasion of Aberto 2024, brings us the universe of Lula Goce on a more human scale than we are used to. Internationally known for her work as a muralist, in this exhibition we focus on her painting on canvas.
The plant motifs, very typical of his iconography, presented in detailed compositions, recreate a kind of garden with a certain tendency to abstraction. Two large-format female portraits surrounded by exuberant nature stand out, referring to the duality between human and natural beauty.
“Cutie chaos” by Pablo Little
On Friday, June 28, we welcomed summer with “Cutie Chaos”. An exhibitions of ceramics and drawing by the artist Pablo Little (Córdoba,1989). With no beginnig or end in his narrative, he incorporates the cross-out in his drawings and the irregular profile in his ceramics, because he does not know disapproval. Black and white on the paper, reserve the color for the ceramic. A chromatic explosion where convention does not exist either. Sensitive and vitalistic, his work awakens in the viewer the child that we all carry inside. It is the beauty of living in an ungovernable world, in a wonderful chaos.
“Sara Herranz & Simone” de Beauvoir by Sara Herranz
On Wednesday, May 8, we inaugurated “Sara Herranz & Simone de Beauvoir” establishing a dialogue with a series of fragments of texts taken from the literary work “The Broken Woman”, by Beauvoir, together with works by the illustrator from Tenerife, with unique editions created for the gallery.
Suggestive, mysterious and reflective, Sara delves into the depths of the most existentialist Neo-noir. Its protagonists, nonconformist by nature, together with their expressive and delicate strokes and messages full of irony, form the guiding milestone of a story that combines narrative and visual strength.
“Cola, papel y tijera” by Iván Prieto and Alba Casanova
With the return from Semana Santa (Holy Week), the day of Friday, April 5th inaugurated the exhibition “Cola, Papel, Tijera” (“Glue, Paper, Scissors”) which resumes the activity in the gallery with the predominance of collage.
With a wink to fate and to the importance of play, we welcome the spring with this duo. Artist Iván Prieto (O Barco de Valdeorras, 1978), better known for his role as sculptor, brings us this technique in its most traditional format. Using papers of different textures, cut-outs, or museum tickets, he creates an expressionist universe that is full of symbols. Although in her past she specialized in sculpture, artist Alba Casanova (Vigo, 1981) develops animation, motion design, and digital collage with surrealist imagery reminiscent of Victorian photo collage.
Long live collage!
“Nulla sine die linea” by Cristina Fernández Núñez
“Nulla dies sine linea”, inaugurated the 9th of February 2024, is an exposition that showcases the duality present in the works of Cristina Fernández Núñez (Vigo).
In this duo, the focus is put on her method of representing both a natural and urban landscape. The exhibition can be read either from left to right or the other way around, because both poles converge and coexist in the time within the paintings of this Vigo artist. Although her architectural artworks are based on geometry, she still always ends up searching for a stronghold, a refuge where nature makes its appearance. It’s not accidental that Cristina ends up with moulding where plant and vegetation formations make an appearance. In the same manner, when Cristina undertakes the representation of a natural landscape, she searches time and time again for a straight line.
“Nulla dies sine linea” (“No day without a line”) is a Latin expression that we know from Pliny the Elder, who in turn attributed it to the painter Apelles of Colophon, who suspectedly didn’t live a single day without painting a line.
“El cubo perfecto” by Alba Galocha, Alberto Ash (Vigo), Enay Ferrer, Iván Prieto, Lara Pintos, Lula Goce, Mario Soria, and Mery Pais
“El cubo perfecto” (“The perfect cube”), exposition inaugurated the 1st of December 2023, is told with the participation of artists Alba Galocha (Santiago de Compostela), Alberto Ash (Vigo), Enay Ferrer (Caracas), Iván Prieto (O Barco de Valdeorras), Lara Pintos (A Coruña), Lula Goce (Baiona), Mario Soria (Barcelona), and Mery Pais (Santiago de Compostela).
In this exhibition, a play on words links the famous white cube theorized by Brian O’Doherty with that which mathematically is known as the perfect cube (two to the third degree). In this form, eight artists burst into the white cube and multiply this duo three times.
“Eros y Tánatos” by Yolanda Dorda and Roberto González Fernández
“Eros and Thanatos” inaugurated the exposition of September 2023, a duo protagonized by Yolanda Dorda (1974, Barcelona) and Roberto Gonzáles Fernández (1948, Barcelona).
The exposition compares two concepts: on one hand, we find the figure of Eros, the god of love in Greek mythology; and on the other, Thanatos, a figure that personifies death.
Yolanda Dorda embodies the drive and instinct of Eros with a body of work that is expressionist, lustful, and exuberant. At the same time, Roberto Gonzalez Fernandez shows a character in his works that is cold, dissident, and somber that identifies with Thanatos.
“Animales de agua” by Manuel Moranta and Raúl Álvarez
The exposition “Animales de agua” (“Animals of Water”, or “Water Animals”) protagonized the summer season with the works of Manuel Moranta (Tarragona, 1979) and Raúl Alvarez (Madrid, 1982).
Raúl Alvarez makes use of an impactive yet realistic style where the sea is the main protagonist. The walls of Dupla were filled with oil-painting surfers that made a show of the exposition’s title. Manuel Moranta did the same in a more primitive, lyrical style, where words and drawings combine to perfection. He took the role of representing fresh water.
“La costilla de Adán” by María Hesse and David Fidalgo Omil
“La costilla de Adán” (“Adam’s Rib”), a duo formed from April to May 2023 by Maria Hesse (Huelva, 1982) and David Fidalgo Omil (Lugo, 1989), utilize biblical sources and world literature as a starting point in order to revisit the myth of creation.
David Fidalgo turns to the meme and to artificial intelligence to achieve “divine inspiration.” At the same time, Maria Hesse embodies scenes from classic literature (The Judgement of Paris), from the Bible (The Temptation), and literary figures (Snow White) in order to celebrate their disobedience.
“Por una cabeza” by Samuel Salcedo and Pelucas Pilas
“Por una cabeza” (“By a Head”) was the name elected for this duo protagonized by Samuel Salcedo (Barcelona, 1975) and Pelucas Pilas Bubbles (Vigo, 1980).
In addition to making a reference to the “plastic” and sculptural theme of these artists, the exhibition appeals in a symbolic manner to the figure of the apostle, whose body, which is guarded in the crypt of the cathedral, is missing its head due to death by decapitation. “By a head” is also an equestrian term, a nod to the equine representation of St. James the Apostle, therefore alluding in a symbolic manner to the decapitation of the apostle St. James.
“Give me five” by Roberto González Fernández, Lara Pintos, Iván Prieto, Cristina Fernández Núñez and Pablo Rodríguez Little
“Give me five” is the pentagram of DUPLA. Inaugurated the 21st of December 2022, five artists articulate the puzzle of this gallery: Roberto González Fernández (Monforte de Lemos, 1948), Lara Pintos (A Coruña, 1984), Iván Prieto (O Barco de Valdeorras, 1978), Cristina Fernández Núñez (Vigo, 1971), and Pablo Rodríguez Little (Córdoba, 1989).
The expression “high five” manifests a celebration between two people, which finds its origins in the world of sports, where the palm of one hand meets another. In this exhibit the five artists show their duality and reach their hand out to the viewer, who fulfills the gesture.
“Ornamento y delito” by Carlos Tárdez
“Ornamento y delito” (“Ornament and Crime”) takes off on horseback between the visual paradox, the real and the mythological, formality and irony. From the conceptual and sculptural point of view, the double meaning was presented in the exhibition of Carlos Tárdez (Madrid, 1976) inaugurated the 18th of November 2022.
The realism of his painting, contrasted with the treatment of the background in which his figures are situated, results in a conception of space that obeys more the parameters of abstraction than those of figuration. Precisely, this duality turns the artists into the protagonist of the first individual duo. His ability to appeal to the past in his works and transform it into the present, as well as the playing of titles and icons, makes this artist, for Adolf Loos, a “delinquent” of art. But similar to how René Magritte represented a pipe that couldn’t be smoked, Carlos Tárdez points with a revolver that can’t be fired.
Voila!
It’s a fallacy, an illusion, a beautiful lie.
“Confabulaciones” by Lara Pintos and Iván Prieto
More than half a millennium ago, Rogier Van Der Weyden painted his celebrated “The Descent from the Cross”, a scene that in part inspired the exposition “Confabulaciones” (“confabulations”) by Lara Pintos (A Coruña, 1984) and Iván Prieto (O Barco de Valdeorras, 1978), inaugurated the 7th of October 2022.
Lara Pintos situates us in front of uninhabited architecture, where time seems to have slowed down. In her works, the study of light and reflections are consistent. The exploration of the Newtonian refraction and the decomposition of white light in colors makes it so her brushstrokes jump and turn towards a certain abstraction.
The imagination of Ivan Prieto conceives the characters with a striking sculptural quality. Resolute and with great chromatic richness, he wraps his figures in cloth with heavy folds and arranges them in unbearable and absurd postures. The use of fluorine colors and the playing of textures in those fabulous characters convert them into a hybrid between the human and animal world. Here is a realm in which the painter and sculptor takes the reins.