María Gómez presents her work El Viento. Retirarse es lo Primero at the Centro de Arte Faro de Cabo Mayor.
Santander 28-06-22. The Art Center Faro de Cabo Mayor (CAFCM), under the Port Authority of Santander, will open its doors today hosting a new exhibition: "The Wind. Retreat is the First", by the artist María Gómez, from Salamanca. An exhibition, curated by Juan González de Riancho, which takes place in the framework of the usual summer collaboration with the Sanz-Villar family, and is part of the program being developed by the APS on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of its creation.
This exhibition refers to the reality of the pandemic, emphasizing changes in everyday life. Situations in which lost adult characters are held in children, the lazarillo, requesting something they lack. In other works, the act of meditation or the rest of the nap is accentuated. There are several large paintings with a more vivid and colorful palette than usual in his work. On the other hand, she shows us a long series of portraits on yellow pages with diffuse colors and strokes, beings of a more psychological than physical nature, which allude to work, and which make up a long frieze.
As the artist explained, the collection arises "from the moment of the collection", that is, from the confinement due to the pandemic. From there she creates paintings "related to meditation or directly to the consequences of COVID 19" such as "On the way to Sputnik" where she makes direct reference to the masks and vaccines.
For his part, the president of the Port Authority has emphasized that it is a "very modern" work, in which the light beams have prominence "which makes it a good candidate to be exhibited in the lighthouse" and thanked the Sanz-Villar family for this possibility "to bring to the port of Santander works and artists of such quality".
*María Gómez (Salamanca, 1953) lives and works in Madrid. Her work has been exhibited at the Palacio de Velázquez (Madrid), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), Museo de Bellas Artes (Málaga), etc. His work is part of important national and international collections such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo (Madrid), Colección Banco de España (Madrid), Colección BBVA (Madrid), Patio Herreriano Museum of Contemporary Art (Valladolid), Real Maestranza Collection (Seville), Marugame Irai Museum of Contemporary Spanish Art (Japan), International Museum of Modern Art (Cairo), Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Collection (Rome), Museum Für Kommunikation (Stuttgart).
"In my work, I try to keep it very simple. I also try not to set goals for myself. I prepare the canvases and paints and I act until the painting, at some point, starts to work by itself. From that moment on, I have the feeling that it is not me who paints, but that it is painted, with laws that I discover and name as they appear". M.G.
The work of María Gómez distances herself from her Spanish contemporaries, coinciding with stays in Italy, Greece and Egypt. The influence of early Renaissance classics such as Giotto, Piero della Francesca, as well as contemporary masters such as Morandi or Balthus, are mixed with a rebellious stance against other trends of the moment, claiming the rapprochement between past and present within a tradition of her own, based in the Mediterranean, where speed slows down. Where the past lives and coexists with the immediate present. This helps her to delve into painting, architecture and landscape, and at the same time to be able to unite her narrative restlessness, since she also writes, and is a great reader.
Finding contemporaneity in her work is a subtle process through the narrative function, the pictorial and philosophical aspect. Her works open the door to "the other side". María Gómez's paintings are full of characters and her figuration is a mixture of fiction and reality, which take us to that place, which all humans perceive through introspection and observation at some point.
The exhibition, which will remain at the Cabo Mayor Lighthouse Art Center until next September 11, is free admission.
Hours:
Tuesday to Thursday from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.
Friday to Sunday from 11:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 20:00 hours.
Mondays closed.