This exhibition came about when Rosa Santos asked Marina González Guerreiro and myself to choose a number of artists who work with ceramics in the present moment and in proximity. After a wonderfully rewarding period of investigation in which we were able to evince the richness of clay in the different places from which it has been and continues to be explored, we invited Chelo Matesanz, Emilia Guimeráns, Nagore Chivite, Nerea Puente and Patricia Varea Milán to accompany us. We wanted to set in place a—necessarily abridged—genealogy of artists from different generations engaging with the same material and to make the most of the occasion to bring together artists whose work we have grown up with and some others who are now consolidating their practice.
The bonds tying us together are tangible yet slippery. The point of departure for Emilia and Patricia can be traced back to the learning of a craft and the mathematics of the material. Their training in Japan and in Korea with masters girded their practice with technique, formal synthesis, ash and a control of firing. In the case of Guimeráns, with a view to experimenting with the material and to embrace imperfection. Varea uses the knowledge garnered and the alteration of processes of firing clays and porcelains to achieve incredibly magical tonal and metallic nuances that speak of her fascination with seeds, fossils and anthropology, an interest that dovetails with the reliquary character of Nagore’s works which allude to ancient species and remains of other civilizations.
Tradition also underpins the decorative ceramic that Marina recovers with the purpose of introducing it into the personal and radically contemporary language of her compositions and installations. Plates, tiles and holy water fonts are some of those forms that are also picked up in the personal universe of Chelo’s sculptures. In her case they are closer to vases and decorative objects which she covers with blotches of colour and humour. Her interest in collage, fragmentation, clay and women’s bodies resonates with many of us and has made her a major reference for today’s generations.
In my view, this way of connecting the material to the body during the process of construction of large-format pieces is absolutely crucial. It allows me to engage emotionally and almost romantically with clay and writing, as well as with the nuances of colour and texture that emerge when introducing minerals and other raw materials. The expressiveness of the form and deformation is something that makes me identify with the work of Nerea, whose sculpture is at once formalist and gestural. Through her works she strives to generate a transmission of her physical experience, sharing it by means of ceramic pastes combined with non-conventional materials like foam and latex. Shifting from body to clay, from mud to fire. The embers of which gave rise to this conversation.
