“Path of Memory”
Llamazares Gallery presents “Path of Memory”, an exhibition by María Jesús Rodríguez that, through a careful selection of works, revisits her trajectory, offering a new perspective on her past proposals and an approach to her new artistic contributions. The exhibition spans over thirty years of her production, featuring works of various formats and techniques, among which the enigmatic presence of her cardboard sculptures, which remain a central thread in much of her work, stands out. These works are enriched and complemented by drawings on paper and prints on aluminum, intimate works of small format that reveal her profound sensitivity towards the natural environment.
As a starting point, pieces dated between 1989 and 1990 are presented, clear naturalistic reminiscences that, through a stratigraphic treatment and a monochromatic pictorial finish, evoke geological worlds of coal or slate. Building upon these reference works, the exhibition delves into the various avenues of creation that the artist has been exploring up to the present day; her current works continue to move us with their simple naturalness and an increasingly pure essentialism. These are works that evidence the deep connections between the artist and her surroundings, with the landscape, with ethnography, and even with the Asturian language, present in some of the titles. “Everything nature cannot provide, even if it wished to, is provided by works of art: they make one suddenly open their eyes,” says the great thinker Theodor Adorno, and from this assertion, we understand that “Path of Memory” is an opportunity to delve into the work of María Jesús Rodríguez, to connect with the beauty of the natural environment, and to reflect on its fragile existence.
Santiago Martínez, Curator
