Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid

Ángela de la Cruz
Tight (Light blue / Turquoise), 2014
Oil and acrylic on canvas
70 x 50 x 12 cm
Photo by: Joaquín Cortés
 
 
ÁNGELA DE LA CRUZ
Traspaso
 
Until 3 January, 2015
 
Ángela de la Cruz (La Coruña, Spain, 1965) presents her second solo exhibition, Traspaso, at the Helga de Alvear Gallery. De la Cruz is economical in her use of resources. She deploys the language of minimalism and concentrates on monochromes. The predominant colour in Traspaso is blue.
 
This artist deftly breaks the link between the wall and the painting, so that the gallery walls act as a support to lean her works against and the floor becomes the base for what might have been a painting but is presented to us as sculpture. Were it not for the meticulous finish of every one of her works, the way they are folded so perfectly and the order underlying their composition, we might think they were failed paintings, rejected and somewhat tortured.
 
The “Nothing” series consists of pictures reduced to the bare minimum, producing little spheres about to unfold. The “Roll” pieces are rolled-up canvases leaning against the wall, and the largest work, “Drop”, is marked by the tracks of the artist’s wheelchair. When Ángela de la Cruz decides to hang her works, it is as if they were dissatisfied with their role and were trying to dissociate themselves from the wooden frames that bound them.
 
As well as paintings that aspire to be sculptures, De la Cruz presents her “Throw” series, sculptures that aspire to be paintings. To be precise, they are monochrome skeuomorphs in aluminium of what looks like a folded cardboard box. In this series, trompe l’oeil comes into play, and what appears soft is in fact hard. This time, in her play of inversions, she really does hang on the wall what we are actually used to seeing on the floor: cardboard boxes.
 
 
Galería Helga de Alvear
Doctor Fourquet, 12
28012 Madrid
Spain
T: 0034 91 468 05 06
 
Galería Helga de Alvear
 
Read On... Galería Helga de Alvear, Madrid