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7/4/2004

Drawings Today

Contemporary Art Centre, Malaga

The CAC Malaga is hosting an exhibition which includes a total of 31 works by thirteen Spanish and international artists who all share an interest in line. The works are the outcome of the rich and complex evolution that took place in drawing over the last century to the point where it has now become a category in its own right in contemporary art. Throughout the 20th century, drawing has developed from its status as a mere working tool for disciplines such as painting, sculpture and architecture in order to become a creative language with a perspective and raison d'etre of its own.

Drawings Today will present the most contemporary manifestation of this development through a very surprising group of works characterized by its formal originality and its efficiency in the transmission of some contemporary social themes, such as violence, personality affirmation and changes in the landscape. As far as style is concerned, figuration clearly predominates over abstraction.

In the show renowned figures such as Ester Partegás, Pablo Alonso and Bernardí Roig are in the show together with young talents whose innovative work has irrupted onto the current art scene, such as Cristina Lucas, Gemma Paris, SEO, Yehudit Sasportas or Rafael G. Bianchi. ''All the selected artists explore the functions of line as a boundary between the imaginary and the symbolic'', the art critic Gabriel Rodríguez declares in the exhibition catalogue.

The traditional pencil-on-paper combination is accompanied by others whose results will surprise the onlooker due to their originality and efficacy in terms of their composition of form and meaning. Mural drawing, drawing on In the works displayed, figuration prevails over abstraction. Particularly noteworthy is the original use of materials not commonly employed in figurative drawings, such as acrylic paint, tempera and marker pen, as well as the more usual pencil, combined with supports, many of them large-sized, which are even more unexpected in this kind of creative work, including methacrylate, video, wood and mirrors.

Line as a medium of expression By combining these materials with their use of the line, Gemma París reproduces enigmatic women without faces; Rafael G. Bianchi creates an entire structure of signs that point to feelings such as grief or to death; Ester Partegás reflects her most private thoughts by means of a confrontation with the public space; Cristina Lucas considers the irrationality of human actions; Pablo Alonso arouses a sense of surprise in the midst of the everyday; Yehudit Sasportas probes the possibilities of the simple line in landscape work; Hans Hemmert reveals the person who wants to be named; SEO explores textures and chiaroscuros; Bernardí Roig presents someone who closes himself off from the outside world; Catie de Balmann draws outlines that verge on being sculptures; Stéphanie Nava investigates the frontier between interior and exterior; and Mónica Fuster and Nicholas Woods construct a mysterious, transparent wood.

As Rodríguez concludes, ''the pure line continues to dazzle artists because it is the simplest, most direct field for experimentation; it is the hinge, the point of encounter where conflicts that have never been fully resolved can be resurrected''.

Contemporary Art Centre of Malaga
Calle Alemania s/n 29001 Málaga - España
Hours: 10am - 8pm. Monday closed

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