Nino Mier Gallery is pleased to present MULTITUDE, an exhibition of new paintings, drawings, and bronze giraffe sculptures by Spanish artist Rafa Macarrón. On view in Brussels from October 14 – November 10, 2022, MULTITUDE is Macarrón’s second solo exhibition with the gallery and first show in Brussels.
Set against neutral backgrounds, Macarrón’s paintings are kaleidoscopic agglomerations of anthropomorphic forms. The predominantly orange hue of their skin stands out against monochromatic backdrops, creating an uncanny absence of environment or context for the colorful and misshapen characters. Saturated with humor and whimsy, they tap into the cubist abstraction of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró along with a Boschian density of figure and action. The figures’ many-fingered hands, eyes that extend like flower petals, and mouths full of small, chattering teeth proliferate across the canvases like features of a landscape.
The suite of paintings presented in the exhibition constitute a departure from Macarrón’s typical method. In the past, Macarrón began his paintings with sketches, whereas in the new works, he painted directly on the canvas after envisioning each composition’s overall structure. Per the artist, this makes for an invigorated relationship with the materiality of the paint itself, as he seeks out the freshness and delicacy of direct brushstrokes on canvas.
In both the canvases and the works on paper, each figure takes part in an isolated activity such as smoking, pondering, or drinking, oblivious of their peers. The compositional layering of figures, devoid of architecture or environment, creates spatial disorder. Chaos permeates the works, as figures are distributed throughout their surfaces as though they were suspended in space. Despite this concentration, a sense of loneliness permeates the works. Each character is trapped within their own formal limits—trapped, further, within their own tense arcs of tragedy and humor—rather than connecting with others.
Rafa Macarrón (b. 1982, Spain; lives and works in Madrid) has exhibited at CAC, Málaga, Spain; Galerie 75 Faubourg, Paris, FR; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; CVG Foundation, Beijing, CN; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Alicante, Spain; Museo DA2, Salamanca, Spain; and his work is collected by institutions worldwide, including the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, New York; Fundación BMW, Spain; Caja Campo, Valladolid, Spain; and Colección Mercadona, Spain; among others.