MARIA GIMENO
"Voyage Sans Frontières"
20 MAY - 11 JUNE 2011
Opening 19 May 2011

Mapa Swab, 2007, Mixed media on canvas, 190 x 150 cm
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Biography
Gowen Contemporary is delighted to announce an exhibion of the Spanish artist Maria Gimeno.
Maria Gimeno (Zamora, Spain, 1970) is an artist whose free experimental and multimedial approach explores integration of subjectivity processes. This research materialises notably in the series of large drawings called Introspective Personal Geographical Maps, ‘Cartes Géographiques Introspectives Personnelles’ (C.G.I.P.). A collection of more than a hundred large drawings, crocheted pieces, videos as well as sewn papers integrating written texts, vouch for the artist’s fascination for the world of random connexions which roam in our brain and form thoughts and memory.
The outside world, with its information, often acts as a detonator. Therefore Gimeno’s introspective work coexists with a production of works whose connotations are openly politico-social or draw their inspiration from exterior multi-cultural sources.
Experience is often part of Gimeno’s work and the viewer, who becomes a role-player, finds himself confronted with the consequences of his acts.
This is the case, for example, with Sakineh, Under a Stone, 2010, a work composed of a tiny embroidery representing the only known portrait of Sakineh Mohamed Ashtiani and a stone. To see the embroidery, the stone needs to be lifted up. The viewer feels an unpleasant sentiment of obviousness. However, replacing the stone in its initial position is finally no longer something so simple to do.
Gimeno also digs holes in walls or in glass. For the artist digging is an allegory of an act of self-determination and reveals the truth. The viewer is invited to share this experience and his look will discover, to the other extreme, a new way of seeing things. A sort of epiphany just in a detail of a street, a garden or in the embroidered image of Saturn devouring his child, a perfect metaphor of the society in which we are living.
Maria Gimeno was born in 1970 in Zamora, Spain and studied Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid and then design and photography. She is based in Madrid where she develops her multimedia work.
Selected past solo exhibitions include ‘Mar Interior’, Cervantes Institute, Belgrade (2010); ‘Il bucco/Saturno’, Lucas Carrieri Art Gallery, Berlin (2009); ‘Tijido de Fragilidades’, Fragil arte contemporaneo. Curated by Giulietta Speranza (2008); ‘Solo puedo ser yo’, Pilar Parra y Romero Gallery, Madrid (2005); ‘Del Proyecto Escultórico’, Art Center Joven, Madrid. Curated by J. Marín Medina (2000).
Forthcoming group exhibitions include ‘Correspondencia’ (in connection with the workshop ‘Taller Jannis Kounellis’ in 2009), Antico Minicipio, San Donato Val di Comino, FR. Curated by Bruno Corà. Exhibition’s catalogue (summer 2011).Selected past group exhibitions included ‘Encuentro’, La nave Gallery, Altamira, Gijon; Taller Jannis Kounellis, Villa Iris, Santander ; X Bienal de La Habana, Cuba. Exhibition’s catalogue (2009); Ajenos, Palacio San Isidoro, Palermo (2008); Premio Bancaja. IVAM. Exhibition’s catalogue (2007); ‘Painting Identities’, Pilar Parra Gallery (2004).
Gimeno’s works can be found in the collections of Juan Entrecanales Foundation, UBS Collection, Coca-Cola Foundation, Caja Madrid Foundation.
For further information please contact Laura Gowen on (+41) 79 330 17 54 or info@gowencontemporary.com