Artist: Alejandro Botubol
Dates: November 18th 2017 to January 12th 2018

“Macropintura”

In May of this year, Alejandro Botubol presented his work entitled “Espejo” (“Mirror”) at the Ponce+Robles gallery. It hinted at his latest collection, created for his first solo exhibition at the gallery.

The exhibition, entitled Macropintura (Macro painting), envelops us in the artist’s personal experience of light as it enters his studio through the window. From his vantage point, Botubol observes his surroundings and follows the path of the light, creating a story, sometimes merely a simple anecdote, which continues to evolve as time passes.
The artists takes everyday utensils and repurposes them as the tools he uses to create his artworks. Sometimes, an old, round bathroom mirror is used to paint the afternoon light on the walls of his studio. Ultimately, light is the element which unifies almost all of his works on canvas.The artist gathers together these processes of observation and analysis until, in his own words, “one day, the whole organic universe starts to take on a solid form, and the movement of my brushstrokes transports me to a hallowed state of unconscious rhythms”.

This solo exhibition by Alejandro Botubol at the Ponce+Robles gallery includes the installation entitled “Altar de noche” (“Altar at night”) which is, as the artist explains, “a piece that created itself, taking shape bit by bit until it decided to stop”. As in “Espejo” (“Mirror”), Botubol has succeeded in transporting a mystical, primordial experience from the studio to the gallery. A photograph of the defragmented evening light is projected through a prism positioned over a mirror, which itself reflects the sunset on a subtly illuminated canvas.

The Ponce+Robles gallery invites you, the audience, to experience Botubol’s inner world up close, as if you were a part of his every process in his own studio. An introspective vision of the day-to-day life of a painter who starts illuminating with “colour-light”, and who through this ritual strives to achieve the same luminous intensity in his paintings.

Alejandro Botubol reflects on his recent works and further develops the theme of artists who address the subject of light. The duality between natural and artificial light, the light of his childhood home, and the light of Light Art.

Throughout his foray into the United States during various New York residencies in 2013, Botubol studied the works of Georgia O’Keefe, Mark Rothko, and Edward Hopper with a keen eye… (20th century). He was also influenced by the freshness and depth of works by contemporary North American artists such as Richard Tuttle, Dan Flavin and Matt Connors; their use of colour, their concepts of artworks and space, and the use of new media to display paintings. These last artists led Botubol to the discovery of James Turrell, a true maestro of colour; towards the end of his stay in New York, he attended a huge retrospective of Turrell’s work at the Guggenheim in the same city.

Botubol has a degree in Fine Arts (Seville, Spain, 2007), and a Master’s degree in “Idea y Producción” (“Concept and Creation”) (University of Seville, 2013). He spent 2013 in New York, where he developed an ambitious art project during various artistic residencies: Residency Unlimited (RU) Brooklyn; international studio & curatorial program (iscp), Brooklyn, New York; Flux Factory Long Island City, New York. His work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and national and international institutions in Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, and the United States. He currently lives and works in Madrid.