ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

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"La Sombra del Pino" gathers a series of works created collaboratively by the Uruguayan painter duo Maite y Manuel (Maite García Argul, b.1996 and Manuel Puig, b.1991), whose work merges the discipline of drawing with a distinctive personal language halfway between abstraction and figuration. 

The title of the exhibition originates from the context in which the works were produced. Made during the summer months in their home garden, the artists were constantly moving the stretcher frames from one side to the other, seeking the shade of the pine trees as a shelter from the sun and as a method of protection for the paintings. This process has allowed them to explore and observe the work in progress from multiple perspectives, generating paintings full of movement that result of interrupted rhythms "under the shade of the pine tree" and variations that have been infiltrating as part of this whole creative process based on action, rapid brushstrokes and reflection, without forgetting the spirit of play that originates each work. 

 

Acting, rectifying, stumbling, experimenting, hindering, everything in the creative development of Maite y Manuel is part of a conversation between them based on the testing of the material and fed by the randomness of the gestures that are happening work after work and that make up the fight between the intentional and the automaton that both seek to resolve satisfactorily. 

 

The characters that appear in the works are the backbone of Maite y Manuel's artistic trajectory. Imagined from references and images that evoke memories of their childhood with touches of fantasy and lightness, the conception of these figures allows the artists to address deep themes and complex emotions with subtlety and playfulness. These invented characters represent the artists' alter egos and stage self-referential situations, reflecting on the dynamics, challenges and tensions of being an artistic duo, and themes such as mutual dependence, the difficulties of living in a foreign country and shyness.

 

Maite y Manuel are dedicated to playing and experimenting with painting, focusing on taking advantage of mistakes and strengthening mutual trust as they create. The works direct the main attention towards emotions, stripping the characters of their surroundings in order to highlight the shared interpersonal experiences. In most of the compositions the main character seems to be disconnected from others, suspended on an alternate plane within the image, silently lost amidst the hustle and bustle of the world around him, living an internal struggle that goes unnoticed by others.

 

A collaboration based on the combination of their two energies, thus staging an ongoing dialogue guided by the consensus between the two artists.