GROUP EXHIBITION: BETWEEN MATTER AND PRESENCE
VILLAZAN Madrid is delighted to present Between Matter and Presence, that brings together works by Antoni Tàpies, Miquel Barceló, Günther Förg, Elvira Fustero, Secundino Hernández, Jorge Galindo, and Samuel Salcedo.
February 5 - 21, 2026
This exhibition. proposing a shared reflection on materiality, gesture, and the human condition in contemporary art. Across different generations and practices, these artists understand matter not as a passive surface but as a site of thought and experience. Paint, pigment, metal, and sculpted form function as active agents, bearing traces of time, memory, and physical action. The works gathered here emphasize process, tension, and presence over representation or narrative.
The exhibition unfolds in a territory between abstraction and figuration, where images resist fixed definitions. Gesture, erosion, construction, and repetition become central strategies through which each artist engages with the act of making. The body sometimes visible, sometimes implied operates as both measure and limit, anchoring the works in a deeply human dimension.
Rather than offering a linear discourse, the exhibition invites an embodied experience. Viewers are encouraged to engage closely with surfaces, volumes, and spaces charged with material intensity. In this context, art emerges as presence: something that confronts, resonates, and endures beyond interpretation.
Antoni Tàpies is a key figure of postwar art, who transformed matter into a spiritual and philosophical language. His use of humble materials, signs, and textures turns the surface into a space of meditation, where the physical and the symbolic converge.
Miquel Barceló approaches painting as a living organism. His works reveal a continuous struggle between construction and dissolution, where matter appears in constant transformation, echoing natural processes and the passage of time.
Günther Förg’s work explores the tension between structure and gesture. Through architecture, abstraction, and surface, he investigates how form can be both rigid and unstable, balancing order with emotional intensity.
Elvira Fustero’s practice is rooted in material sensitivity and introspection. Her works suggest inner landscapes, where texture and color operate as emotional territories rather than descriptive elements.
Secundino Hernández understands painting as a process of accumulation, erasure, and repetition. His surfaces reveal the history of their own making, emphasizing time, rhythm, and the physical act of painting.
Jorge Galindo’s work is driven by expressive gesture and chromatic intensity. His paintings embrace excess and vitality, where movement and color generate a dynamic tension between abstraction and emotional resonance.
Samuel Salcedo’s sculptures confront the viewer with the psychological presence of the human body. Hyperreal yet deeply introspective, his figures explore vulnerability, identity, and the emotional weight of existence.