Adrian Gaitan

Adrián Gaitán's work is focused on the questioning of the most representative symbols and images of Western art. His work reflects on the aspirational image and the aesthetic reference that Europe represents for Latin America. The pieces are painted and treated with recycled and petroleum-derived materials, such as motor oil. Through the use of this element, Gaitán highlights his interest in oil, a symbol of capitalism by excellence, which has managed to permeate all spheres of our daily lives, including the artistic and cultural spheres.

Juan David Laserna

Biblia Pauperum by Juan David Laserna, the youngest artist to win the Luis Caballero Award in Colombia, is the third part of the project initiated in 2008, in which the artist collects 10 phrases of graffiti written in different public universities, in which he appeals not only to denounce but also to preserve and vindicate the unresolved social causes that have made these gestures worthwhile. With the use of expanded polystyrene, he alters the formal aspects of the phrases, in order to make the viewer relate their content to a period, a context and a specific level of importance, thus reflecting on the archetypes of representation and visual grammar, which frame the speeches of resistance.

Colectivo Mangle

Colectivo Mangle is formed by María Paula and Diego Álvarez, two young people who claim to be carpenters since their training took place in the School of Arts and Crafts, and whose work involves materials and tools typical of carpentry, but who are clearly artists since their works allow us to perceive numerous and profound aesthetic, social and conceptual approaches. Their aim is to change the physical form of the raw material, i.e. wood as it is available in warehouses, to create objects that, unlike those produced by cabinetmakers, are not utilitarian but useful, they produce aesthetic pleasure and induce reflections on art, society, nature, the world and life. Their work implies a return to nature, a reaction to the unification of materials and the consequent loss of variety and identity in artistic works brought by globalization. Wood as an organic element expresses the warmth of life in its forms adaptable to the environment and establishes a contrast with the hyper-transformed environment of the artificial. Their subject matter arises from everyday life, from domestic life, and includes electric cords, grilles, folders, fabrics, tools and even some furniture, all of which cause surprise when one realizes that, in spite of the complicated designs or the extreme thinness of some of the pieces, the material is wood.

Laura Ramírez Palacio

I have recently followed - and tried to study - the process of creation of the wonderful series of drawings by Laura Ramirez entitled "Dissociation", prior to these four that she is now presenting at the "La Cometa" Gallery in Madrid. From my notebook on that series I transcribe, in no particular order, the following epigraphs: the surprising immediacy of her work, which seems almost the product of an ungovernable physiological action; her state of consciousness when drawing, halfway between the trance of artists and the skill of illusionists; the admirable coherence and singularity of the results, which mix the ominous and the endearing, the desolate and the welcoming, the terror and the humor and in all of which lies an endless interest in understanding herself, both herself and others. And she also noted down: the intelligent selection of the support (Mylar paper or polyester film) that resists attacks with the most diverse materials, scraped and erased, until it reaches - even by mistreating the paper - it is objective; the keys of the variable sharpness of the strokes and forms; the portentous, rich and symbolic use of blacks and whites; the admirable skill for drawing and, at the same time, the fierce self-criticism. The series "Dissociation" would fit very well in the type of drawings that Berger called " from memory" and in which, says this author, the artists try to discover and exorcise their own memories, inexpressible in any other way.