FRACTURE SURFACE
Cristina Ramírez
From 30 Jun to 27 Aug 2017
CATALOGUE
Cristina Ramírez's works take us to the edge of the unknown, to the no-man's land between two worlds. They explore a bleak landscape that marks the end of one universe and the beginning of another, a place which is simultaneously Apocalypse and Genesis. The end as a return to the origin: Apocatastasis (restitutio in pristinum statum, "restoration to the original condition"). These peripheral zones are presented to us as viewing platforms, windows opening onto a uniform, absolute darkness or an equally blinding clarity. What lies on the other side remains a mystery which the artist takes pains not to unveil. Exercising restraint and sobriety, she leads us to the threshold of vision but leaves the actual viewing to us. What we manage to see will depend on our imagination and our intentions.
A threshold is not a doorway: it precedes and announces the door's presence, springs from the urge to move forward and establishes the prerequisites for taking that first step. The difference is very subtle yet highly significant: standing on the threshold is not the same as stepping over it. All great meditations are made from thresholds; beyond, on the other side, we can no longer communicate with what we left behind. Before crossing over, we can still formulate hypotheses, infer, glimpse and even articulate our expectations; afterwards everything is uncertain as we step, with reverential horror, into that cloud of unknowing. Desire is a threshold; to satisfy it we must pass through the doorway, and know that there is no turning back.
The exhibition catalogue features an essay by Víctor Borrego Nadal titled 'Extinction'
Openning: june 29, 20.30 pm
Educational workshop: july 8, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm
Guided tour: july 7, 12 am
Presentation of the catalogue: july 7, 12 am
GAlLERY
TAGS
Toledo, 1981
Ramírez has a BA in Art History (2005) from the Complutense University of Madrid and another in Fine Arts (2010) from the University of Granada. She lives and works in Granada. Her recent research is centred on the representation of cosmic horror, a fear of supernatural forces that burst into the plane of ordinary existence. To this end she casts nature, the landscape, as the sole witness to the actions of those invisible forces in a non-anthropocentric universe. Drawing is her instrument of choice for taking on this conflict between the real and the inconceivable.
Nueve Ángulos (Granada, 2016) was her first show dedicated to this concept. La muerte y el ciego (Granada, 2017) and Superficie de Ruptura [Fracture Surface], her exhibition project for the Iniciarte programme, represent the culmination of her research. Cristina has participated in various group shows such as Donde ocurren cosas at Galería La Gran (Valladolid, 2016); Fin, curated by Pedro Alarcón for Columna JM (Málaga 2015); Me, Myself and I with Fundación Centenera at La Lonja (Madrid 2013); JustMad 2 with Galería ASM28 (Madrid, 2011); Casa Falconieri Group Show at Spazio Hemingway (Cagliari 2011); and the 20th Gregorio Prieto Drawing Competition, where she received an honorary mention (Valdepeñas, 2010). She recently won the DKV-Makma Drawing Prize, thanks to which she held her third solo exhibition, Negro Humo (Valencia, 2016).
