Painting, sculpture, bas-relief? More than the technique, the work of Adalina Coromines appeals to the present continuous.
Reviews
Work is Action
Fabra & Coats Contemporary Arts Centre offers two exhibition that question the very essence of the exhibition.
The Vampire Canon in Film
The “Fear and Pleasure. Vampire Movies” programme, at CaixaForum Barcelona, shows how this Gothic, aristocratic figure has conquered our screens.
A Walk through the Life and Work of Beethoven
The ”la Caixa” Foundation offers an online dramatized concert through the biography of the Ludwig van Beethoven on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his birth.
The Runway of Awareness
Once again this year I ask the same photographer friend a favour: to accompany me to the World Press Photo (WPPh) exhibition. But this time I notice him tad less apathetic.
From Hyperactivity to Contemplation
An exhibition about the evolution of the concept of laziness closes the CaixaForum season dedicated to young curators.
Emergency Design
The exhibition “Emergency! Design against COVID-19” shows the collective effort of the design world in fighting the current viral pandemic.
The Art of Symbiosis
The contemporary art of the Suñol Foundation meets the permanent collections of the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) in a risky experiment entitled “Intrusive Dialogues”.
The dregs of Modernisme
Six years after it first opened its doors, the Design Museum of Barcelona has incorporated Modernisme in it journey of exhibitions.
Rescuing the Vampire
The exhibition “Vampires. The evolving myth” (CaixaForum Barcelona) pays homage to the nineteenth century version of the myth to seduce you, make your blood boil and leave you coming out with a crick in your neck.
The Gods of Olympus Are Among Us
CaixaForum Barcelona offers an exhibition on Greco-Roman art and mythology with works from the Prado Museum.
The voice of humans and of things
The Fabra & Coats Arts Centre kicks off the season with two exhibitions with a political slant.
Surrealism and Objects: an obscure relation of desire
The exhibition “Objects of Desire. Surrealism and Design, 1924-2020”, at CaixaForum Barcelona, tells us how the design of objects has borrowed influences, ideas, delusions and obsessions from surrealism.
Modest Urgell, finally over the horizon
As part of the events for the centenary year of his death, the Museum of Art of Girona presents Modest Urgell (Barcelona, 1839-1919), with all his complexity and contradictions.
Life in modern cities
The exhibition “Camera and City. Urban Life in Photography and Film” at the CaixaForum Barcelona brings together 244 pieces by 80 photographers and filmmakers, made between 1910 and 2010. Together they form a kind of visual essay or reflection through still and moving images.
Museum of the Empordà: Disquieting de Juana
Pasear por la última exposición de Eudald de Juana en el Museu de l’Empordà (Figueres) es como transitar un sueño; da la sensación de que sus esculturas nos observan y que, de repente, sean capaces de desvanecerse.
Museum of La Garrotxa: exhibiting is participating
The Museum of La Garrotxa, in Olot, has organized an exposition in which the neighbors choose the pieces to exhibit.
Museum of Lleida: reclaiming the Baroque
The Museum of Lleida has undertaken a makeover of its Renaissance and Baroque halls. This has offered the chance to do justice to and get a better understanding of the Catalan Baroque which has so far been the subject of little public knowledge.
Papanek, Design, Politics and Militant DIY
The Barcelona Design Museum shows a large retrospective centred on the designer, theorist and activist Victor Papanek (1923-1998).
Llorenç Balsach: when Sabadell was at the centre of culture
The Museu d’Art de Sabadell devotes a revealing exhibition to the figure of Llorenç Balsach Grau (1922-1993), industrialist, painter, patron and collector.
Mirador Gallery: Catalonia as a mirage
A exhibition at the Apel·les Fenosa Foundation in El Vendrell recuperates the memory of the Mirador gallery in Paris – a space for Catalan culture in exile in post-war Paris.
Abyss or Refuge?
The exhibition Freefall at the CaixaForum Barcelona explores the situation of uncertainty, concern and sometimes even panic which many people are suffering during these times of structural crisis.
Joaquim Capdevila: precious metals as artistic expression
Joaquim Capdevila has reinvented jewels as a means of artistic expression. The Design Museum of Barcelona is showing a retrospective.
The Magic Tricks of Bill Viola
The art of Bill Viola (Nova York, 1951) has got a hypnotic quality so intense that it fascinates and annoys in equal measure: the same is true for the mystical and spiritual substrata of his work.
The Opera Makes History
CaixaForum Barcelona tells us the story of modern Europe through eight operas. This is a high fidelity exhibition that has to be visited using the audio guide.
Shadow, Splendour and Melancholy in Catalan Art
The exhibition “Realism(s) in Catalonia 1917-1936” explores how some artists opted for a renovation of their artistic language without renouncing figuration.
The Enigma of Visibility
”la Caixa” exhibits its collection of contemporary paintings.
Prince, nothing compares to the original
Prince once said that with all the unpublished material in his mythical musical and visual ‘vault’ he could make an album a year for a century.
Miró-Gaudí-Gomis: when looks cross
This exhibition, which has been organised using the collection of foundation, looks at the aesthetic and creative affinities of Gaudí and Miró as seen through the Joaquim Gomis.
Frank Horvat: “Please don’t smile”
The Espais Volart of the Vila Casas Foundation is showing “Please don’t smile”, by the photographer Frank Horvat who, having worked relentlessly during his professional life, now offers a collection of photographs taken in the field of fashion in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
Renau: art and revolution
The anthological exhibition by Valencian Josep Renau (1907-1982) – poster-maker for the revolution – arrives in Barcelona. Introducing the international avant-gardes to Spain in the 1920s and 30s and a reference for the Catalan left in the 1970s, his criticism of American society is alarmingly modern.
Gino Rubert: Altarpieces and Earthly Delights of the 21st Century
Gino Rubert’s new exhibition at Galería Senda succeeds in transmitting an exceptional sensation of freedom.
Two Geniuses Face to Face: Fages and Dalí
You can never really read the work of Salvador Dalí without knowing the literary legacy of Carles Fages de Climent. This is shown by Dalí expert Josep Playà in his book, “Fages Dalí, geniuses and friends”.
The Polyptych of the Vallès
“Vallès: manufacturing pasts, manufacturing futures” is a project in which Claudio Zulian uses the memory of the working class of the county of Vallès – an area historically and politically affiliated to the so-called “red belt” of Barcelona.
In the name of Picasso
This show in the Barcelona museum reinterprets the different facets of the artist from the point of view of ten contemporary creators. The political Picasso, the passionate Picasso and the intellectual Picasso, all covered in the story which unfolds under the curatorship of Rosa Martinez.
Lluís Hortalà or the trickery of the gaze
When you visit the Lluís Hortalà exhibition at Tecla Sala in L’Hospitalet you have to be ready for a double set of rules: those of the eye, subjected to the logical trickery of trompe-l’oeil, and those of the concept, articulated in the solid story about the exhibition by Oriol Fontdevila. But one step at a time.
Richard Learoyd, unsettling and monumental
Learoyd’s photographs are made in a very original way. It is not that he has a camera in his studio but his camera is a room in his studio.
Antoni Fabrés: Recovery Operation
The MNAC, being the national museum that it is, had the job of rescuing the wok of Antoni Fabrés – a versatile and effective artist who moved on from the academic and Orientalist approach of his early works.
The past chapter in La Capella
Entitled “Cerrar abriendo” (Close by opening), the sixth scene of “La Capella 25 Years After”, an exhibition in instalments which has told the story of this centre dedicated to emerging art since the month of January, through the artists that have exhibited there.
From a Cigarette Lighter to a Portable Lamp: the Design Museum revitalises its collection
Did you know that the refillable plastic Clipper lighter, which is sold all over the world, was designed by Enric Sardà in the early 1970s? Or that the cuddly Tous teddy bear was created by Rosa Maria Oriol in 1985 with no intention of it becoming a jewellery icon?
Portraits by August Sander: appearances that don’t deceive?
The August Sander retrospective at La Virreina is exceptional in its rigorous respect for the original structure of the major project the photographer worked on during the early 1900s: People of the 20th Century.
In Combat for the Love of Art
Anyone who enters the exhibition Cinc anys a les trinxeres (Five years in the trenches) by Jesús Galdón, kind of phylacterical mirror hanging on the wall, is immediately reflected in the doorway of the El Quadern Robat gallery.
Time is on the side of the vanquished
Just when the United States once again demonstrate their untamed meddling in the internal affairs of South America and when Pedro Sánchez recognises and legitimates a self-proclaimed president in Venezuela, Macba is opening the necessary and timely exhibition Undefined territories. Perspectives on colonial legacies.
Looking Towards the Heavens from the Refuge of Art
This walk through the magnificent and sadly posthumous exhibition by Jordi Fulla at Can Framis is a silent one. It couldn’t be any other way.
The Pluralistic Imaginary of La Capella
Global cities, futuristic dystopias and universal figures of the literary and linguistic imaginary all come together in La Capella in a group show with ten heterogeneous proposals around the idea of layers or of accumulated time.
Watch out for the Statues!
Pedro Azara’s project for the Catalonia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale confronts the viewer with their own emotional weakness with a series of visceral reactions of love and hate provoked by the images.
Exorcism on Paper
Fourteen works on paper are exhibited at N2 gallery by eleven outstanding artists, united by their “aesthetic tendencies broken by war, interior exile, different attempts to preserve their creative freedom and the dawning following the start of democracy”.
Girona Pays Homage to Pioneering Photographer Valentí Fargnoli
What is it about turn of the century photographs that means we always love them? Three exhibitions revisit the collection of Valentí Fargnoli, he son of Italians settled in Girona who left valuable ethnographic work and heritage photography.
The Invisible Magic of Quantum Physics
The ambitious exhibition “Quantum” which is showing at the CCCB attempts to explain the theory of quantum physics, including a dialogue between science and art.
Overflowing cities: too much mass tourism in Barcelona?
Who hasn’t flown to another European city on a budget flight and then stayed in an AirBnB? Who has never done “acritical tourism” or “place consumption” for a couple of days? It is not easy to raise the debate about the excess of tourism without falling into contradictions.
First Scan of an Illegal Abortion
Laia Abril has made the problem of illegal abortion universal and contemporary through her artistic project “On Abortion”, which is currently being shown at the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona.
Damià Campeny in Mataró
“Reflextions. The Work of Damià Campeny”, at Ca l’Arenas of Mataró, is a show that emphasises the artist’s working method and his context.
Max Beckmann: paradise lost and the strangeness of exile
Max Beckmann’s lost paradise was not a Utopia, but a certain desirable and possible harmony, one that was destroyed by imperialist urges.
Mutant Scenes at La Capella
La Capella is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a space for the promotion of emerging art. And it is doing so in episodes. Here we have the fourth.
Three Art Books for a Desert Island (and 2)
In anticipation of the Day of the book for Sant Jordi, we asked our “Mirador de les Arts” contributors which three art books they would take with them on a desert island. Their answers are surprising.
Three Art Books for a Desert Island (1)
In anticipation of the Day of the book for Sant Jordi, we asked our “Mirador de les Arts” contributors which three books they would take with them on a desert island. Their answers are surprising.
Mechanism of Detachment
“Absències”, a small retrospective of work by Ramon Guillen-Balmes is on show at the Busquets Space of the Massana School of Art and Design.
Van Gogh: stuck half way
The exhibition “Meet Van Gogh” is marketed as an immersive experience – and it is not.
The (double) Secret of Víctor Silva
A mysterious artist named Víctor Silva is exhibiting a series of small format painting at the Víctor Saavedra gallery, accompanied by their photographic reproductions in monumental proportions. Why?
CaboSanRoque take their interpretation of Joan Brossa around Catalonia
CaboSanRoque is always on the move. Their sound installation No em va fer Joan Brossa, which explores some of the poets least known work from the approach of sound, continues its tour.
Sweetly soft…
…comfortable, resistent, easy to wash. This is how , in the seventies, the new textile fabrics from the Mataró manufacturers were advertised. Mataró was a city specialising in the new textile modes and today exhibits its industrial heritage in the old Can Marfà factory.
Gabriel Cualladó is ours
As often happens with good books and films, the exhibition by Gabriel Cualladó at the Catalunya La Pedrera Foundation stays with you for some time after your visit.
Berenice Abbott: Absolutely Modern
A wide-ranging retrospective at the Fundación Mapfre’s Barcelona gallery highlights the North American photographer’s commitment to freedom, modernity and creativity.
Sex, books and the lumpen
What connects gimp masks and an abandoned library? The Pink Panther and a blow-up doll? All is revealed in Evaristo Benítez’s exhibition “Décalage”, at Galeria Contrast.
AIDS Anarchive, documents that fill gaps
Intersexuals, radicalised people, homosexuals, guerrillas, HIV victims. We can say that thanks to the exhibit “AIDS Anarchive”, organised by the Documentation Centre of the MACBA, the museum is we are filling the gap.
Louise Bourgeois: a lesson in survival and freedom
Survival and vulnerability but also courage and freedom. This is the message that all Louise Bourgeois’ work exudes and for me she is one of the best artists of the twentieth century, out of both men and women.
I have been, I am and I will always be a Surrealist
That is how Juan Batlle Planas defines himself in an interview in the newspaper Clarín in 1965, just a couple of years before his death. In the Art Museum of Girona you can see the first exhibition of this artist – Argentinean but with his origins in the Empordà.
Roi Soleil: the limits of power
The eye of the camera has no compassion: regardless of whether you put in front of it. In the case of “Roi Soleil” Albert Serra once again opts for the agonising body of Louis XIV, embodied by another mythical body –that of Lluís Serrat, alias Sanxini, who he has used in almost all of his projects.
The Only Difference Between a Madman and Me…
The figure of Joan Obiols Vié (Granollers, 1918 – Cadaqués, 1980) is multifaceted. This recognised psychiatrist and academic, art collector and cultural activist in times of Francoist restrictions… has not had a complete exhibition dedicated to him until now.
Ignasi de Solà-Morales. Resistant Violence
“In fact, any architectural operation is an imposition, a colonisation which involves violence”. An exhibition at La Virreina reviews the intellectual and critical legacy of the architect Ignasi de Solà-Morales. You won’t be left feeling indifferent.
Sense and Sensibility at the CaixaForum
This interesting study, in exhibition format, addresses emotion though western art. Do we feel the same now as we did five hundred years ago? Is art able to lie and be sincere at the same time?
Estrany-de la Mota, a deconstructed epilogue
Estrany-de la Mota has announced that it will close its doors as a commercial gallery.
Roma: the splendid film by Alfonso Cuarón
I think it is unusual, exceptional even, for a movie to approach the wisdom of life through the wisdom of film in the way that “Roma”, by Alfonso Cuarón has.
Bermejo, the Gestapo and the Crown of Aragon
Bartolomé Bermejo left an Andalusia that had been conquered by the Castilian troops, to travel to Aragon, where it would seem that the ills blown by the winds were not so bad.
Je ne veux pas travailler
A group exhibition on time brings together philosophy and contemporary art at Can Felipa. With nine artists and a Heideggerian title that says “Waste time and buy a watch to do so!”
Our Artistic Relationship with Technology
“Our simple relationship with technology” is the exhibition organised by Mobile Week Barcelona 2019 as the star event in its parallel cultural programme. This exhibit is a reflection on the digital transformation of our society through 14 works by international artists.
Lina Bo Bardi draws the future of the Miró Foundation
The Miró Foundation presents an exhibition of drawing by the Italian-Brazilian Lina Bo Bardi, one of the most important architects of the twentieth century, following the storm which has blown up over the dismissals and the losses of the institution.
The Final Edit of Isaki Lacuesta
“I have been making video installations for some time. They allow me to continue making films in different ways. Because in cinema films there are some things that cannot be done. Either because of the format, or the context, or the audiences, which have become very conservative.”
Kitsch Aesthetic as a Means of Protest
The AES+F group doesn’t care whether they are labelled as frivolous or kitsch. Their aesthetic is generally considered to be on the verge of bad taste.
Venus and Adonis by Estudi Giró
One of the most famous paintings by Titian is “Venus and Adonis”, and it enjoyed so much success at the time that many replicas were made of it, with minimal variations. In the work, the artist does not focus on the myth portrayed by Ovid, but is a free version and one which, to this day, we cannot be sure whether it is of his own invention.
The World of Casas
The painter Ramon Casas was the great columnist for one of the most brilliant and convulsive periods of the history of Catalonia. The Gothsland Gallery has put on a magnificent exhibition of his work, which accompanies the presentation of the first volume of the Complete Catalogue of the artist.
Incombustible Guinovart
The density of techniques, materials and content which can come together in a single work of Josep Guinovart is almost infinite.
The Mini-landscape of Terra-lab.cat
Jordi Mitjà, Jon Uriarte and Ingrid Guardiola have taken the fourth episode from Terra-lab.cat –the visual laboratory of the region– to the Museum of the Empordà in Figueres and the Museum of Exile in La Jonquera.
Saliva, Sweat and Blood at the SÂLMON Festival
The SÂLMON Festival, which is in its seventh year with an extended programme, is always a stimulating event for measuring the pulse of new tendencies in dance, performance arts and contemporary live art.
Silver Anniversary in Episodes at a La Capella
The walls of the chapel of the Ancient Hospital of Barcelona, La Capella, are oozing with history. Health history, religious history and artistic history.
The Difference between “sink” and “lift”
Austrian artist Oliver Ressler presents his first solo exhibition at the gallery àngels barcelona.
The Paradise Lost (or not) of Domènec
After the exhibition last year at the Macba “Not here or anywhere”, Domènec returns to show the tensions between utopia and reality in modern architecture.
Velázquez, the Gold of the Indies and the Captains Alatriste
Philip IV of Spain contracted Diego de Velázquez when the painter was twenty-four years old. He had just arrived in a Madrid that was at the height of Gold Fever.
An Explosive Dalí
Dalí rocks! He invented soft watches, the paranoiac-critic method, the museum as a theatre of experience and, even after his death, the exhibition in two acts.
Joaquim Chancho, the vibration of black and white
At a time when it is so difficult to see good painting exhibitions in our country, the exhibition by Chancho at Ana Mas Projects is a breath of fresh air.
Sergio Mora: expanded drawing and international success
Sergio Mora is able to express himself with as much freshness in a painting exhibition, an illustrated book either for adults or for all readers, a bizarre comic, an album cover or a subjective and non-neutral design for fashion or interiors. The book “Moraland” brings together a collection of his work.
The City Will Not Make Us Free
The Umbral project in the Barcelona metro: thirteen suburban artistic works on migration and its political, social and symbolic contradictions.
Eulogy to the subtlest of Guinovart
A decade after his decease, it is clearer than ever that the highly prolific work of Guinovart need to be reviewed.
The Whole of Tharrats
An exhibition at the Fundació Tharrats d’Art Gràfic commemorates the centenary of the birth of this artist from Girona and explores his multiple creative sides.
Tintin on the Moon
CosmoCaixa invites us to an exhibition that links Hergé’s comic “Mission to the Moon” (1950) with the Apollo 11 mission (1969).
With rebellion, awareness is born… and so is suspicion
The Mayoral Gallery exhibits a joint show of the best pieces of Spanish Informalism.
The MNAC: flexibility or bust
The MNAC has just opened two new halls dedicated to Catalan art from 1940 to 1980.
Lorenza Böttner. An Extremely Delicate Art
In the work of this Chilean-born German artist it does not occur to us that she has no arms or whether she is a man, a woman or a transgender person.
The Gatecrashed Memory of Concha Martínez Barreto
Concha Martínez Barreto is interested in showing the mechanisms of the construction of memory.
DelicARTessen or the Diversity of Non-Institutional Art
DelicARTessen is a great occasion for those who want to see a significant part of current art being made in Barcelona.