“Cara a Cara”
Samuel Salcedo and Sito Mújica
The exhibition “Cara a Cara” (Face to Face) by artists Samuel Salcedo and Sito Mújica. The exhibition is part of the Aberto2025 (Open2025) program, in which the galleries associated with Contemporánea jointly inaugurate the new exhibition season.
In this edition, the Dupla gallery proposes a review of the portrait genre.
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.
