the blue

The word Blue, which we recognise and use as a masculine noun or adjective, is enlarged to encompass an endless set of meanings. Because the perceptions and distorted personal memories of each one of us can be infinite.

Mari Quiñonero - Álvaro Alcázar Gallery presents the first solo exhibition of Mari Quiñonero as the gallery's new artist. "Lo azul" is an exhibition created exclusively for this space and follows a project of great personal scope.

It is an exhibition composed of twelve works that reveal the evolution of the artist in the creative process of her series "Color and Vacuum"; a work beyond abstraction that focuses on the diversity of shapes and colours. The exhibition is composed of an unpublished text and a series of pictorial works on canvas and paper around which the use of colour is studied beyond mere plastic expression, opening up a range of possibilities that take the artist to more poignant areas.

This journey through the colour blue continues in a group exhibition, featuring works by the gallery's artists Mari Puri Herrero, Rafael Canogar, Peter Krauskopf, Rebeca Plana and Guillem Nadal, as well as guest artists Alejandro Botubol and Jude Castel.

Taken together, both exhibitions reveal this "carousel of irrefutable blues", as Mari Quiñonero defines them, and which in fact reveal numerous emotional perceptions. Rafael Canogar leaves in his works the trace of the metaphorical and lyrical intensity of the pictorial surface. In the work presented in this exhibition, "Winter", blue acquires even greater force as a representation of the season. Peter Krauskopf also manages to give an almost wintry dimension to blue in his painterly dragging brushstrokes, to the point of making it icy with those metallic, shimmering tones, so similar to ice.

Blue can also be the memories of a city. Jude Castel depicts his vision of Madrid through monuments or emblematic buildings in various works in pen on paper. Blue can also be the memory of water, of the sea. For Rebeca Plana it is an approach to the Mediterranean, as it is for Guillem Nadal. Even Alejandro Botubol gives it a mystical character to the point that its blue manages to illuminate itself.

Finally, in the middle of the room we find a monumental sculpture by Mari Puri Herrero "Cabeza lectora" (Reading head) in the colour "Bilbao blue", as she defines it, which shows how comfortable she feels painting in this colour. According to the artist, blue tends to expand better and how could it not, if it is the colour of the sky, of water. It is a colour that allows one to feel free in movement.

In short, with these two exhibitions, perhaps we will be able to explore our own ideas and emotions about this colour. Perhaps we will even manage, as Mari Puri says, to ensure that we don't feel confined by blue.