Open 2025
CARA A CARA
Samuel Salcedo and Sito Mújica
“Cara a Cara” (Face to Face), by artists Samuel Salcedo (Barcelona, 1975) and Sito Mújica (Sabadell, Barcelona, 1971), is the exhibition we are presenting at the Dupla gallery as part of Aberto 2025 (Open 2025).
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.
Open 2024
INNER GARDEN
Lula Goce
“Inner Garden”, the exhibition that we present at the Dupla gallery on the occasion of Aberto 2024 (Open 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.
Vibrant shades of red, magenta, and purple evoke passion and vibrancy, while grays bring a thoughtful melancholy.
The exhibition invites us to reflect on loneliness in a beautiful setting, symbolizing the tension between connection and introspection in our relationship with nature and with ourselves.
With this “internal garden” we move from the public sphere in which Lula’s work is usually contextualized, to a more intimate one, where the viewer can see the artist’s work with a different proximity.
