MADRID .- The solo exhibition 'asterisco volcanico avatar frutal' by the collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf) feature Peruvian alpaca wool tapestries, anodized aluminum curtains, acrylic paintings on double sheets of corrugated kraft paper, and one of their spectacular Dancing tapestries, a tapestry suspended from the gallery ceiling by a rotating robotic arm that makes it “dance”, creating an effect of color in movement of great visual power.

These works, many of them created for this exhibition at Marlborough Gallery, seek to highlight the way in which color materializes as an element of communication, energy transmission and cultural unification: throughout avaf's twenty years of activity, color has been used as a key element to generate intense artistic sensations. avaf, a collective known for its immersive installations where abundance dictates Dionysian experiences, includes among its practices an infinity of patterns, images, colors, and forms that dialogue with contemporary cultures, queer sensibility and politics.

The paints are mixed by hand to achieve the type of chromatic vibration perceived on the screens of electronic devices, seeking a relationship between the luminosity and surface effects of the digital colors and the material colors of the painted surfaces.

The forms, predominantly organic, evoke bodies, genitals, objects, animals, and plants announced in the titles; moreover, an obsession for sharp edges emerges, as the delineated areas of color do not blend into one another. The tones are deliberately ultra-matte, with the aim of concentrating the color experience without any intermediate barriers. In the absence of "obstacles" between the viewer's body and the color, the various contrasting tones, though contained within the contours of their shapes, flow beyond the pictorial boundaries. These tensions in the pictorial field are accentuated in certain works, where the forms extend in cut-outs beyond the supposed angular limits of the painting. Frames also play a crucial role: defying the expectation of a frame that implies a border, they play a more sculptural role.

avaf has recently inaugurated adora vanessa athena fantasia, a public art project in Miami, USA, mentioned by CNN, and has been highlighted by the international art magazine ArtForum for its latest exhibition, selected as one of the best of 2023.

avaf is currently working on new projects that will be on view at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, the Dortmunder Kunstverein in Germany, and the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil.

Their works and public art projects have been shown in museums such as: Moma in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOT) in Tokyo, Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, MATE in Lima, Storage by Hyundai Card in Seoul, and the CCCSP in São Paulo, among many others.

The exhibition Metamorfismo seeks to highlight the modes of fluidity and transformation of nature while questioning this very notion through two materials as different as silk and granite, in the works of Nino Bulling (Germany, 1986) and Francisco Leiro (Spain, 1957). In both cases, the works take advantage of the differences in density, surface tension and gravity that characterize these elements. In their apparent simplicity, Leiro's majestic granite totem poles, which were recently on view in the exhibition dedicated to him at MARCO in Vigo, and Bulling's evocative Chinese ink paintings on silk, which were exhibited at the documenta fifteen in Kassel, allow for multiple interpretations embodied around contrast.

The silk conveys delicacy and malleability: partially transparent, the canvases are superimposed according to the angle adopted by the viewer and the light that falls on them. Leiro's sculptures in this exhibition are based on the synthesis and schematic procedure typical of the classical culture of the Cyclades, as well as pre-Columbian art (in particular Aztec and Olmec sculpture), and in dialogue with Bulling, they contribute to create an environment in full metamorphosis, where the earthly and the etheric are in dialogue.

In Leiro's case, the choice of material gives weight to the sculptures, but their representation is light: they are birds that do not clearly show their nature. Bulling, on the other hand, challenges the idea of a natural, rigid, and immutable essentialism, and explores the possibilities of fluidity in their display of gender-dissident characters.

Tu pelo es mi bandera

The exhibition Tu pelo es mi bandera echoes the feminist maxim —diluted in a collective authorship— which highlights that the personal is political: the works of Victoria Civera (Spain, 1955), an artist recently added to Marlborough's roster of artists; Sandra Gamarra (Peru, 1972), Spain's representative at the 60th Venice Biennale; Anna Bella Geiger (Brazil, 1933), a historic Brazilian conceptual artist; and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra (Chile, 1967), whose work is now being exhibited individually at the Denver Art Museum; defend the will to transcend the individual dimension from a deeply reflective, introspective, almost meditative conscience, but also open to the collective.