Maribel Nazco: abstract sensuality

Under the title 'Sensualidad abstracta', the José de la Mano gallery in Madrid immerses us in a world of shapes and textures that defy the hardness of metal. Maribel Nazco, one of the most relevant artists in contemporary Spanish art, invites us to rediscover her work, where sensuality and the human body merge in an ambiguous and suggestive language. Through this exhibition, his particular vision of the body is manifested in materials such as iron, copper or aluminium, transforming the rigidity of the metal into soft and curved forms that evoke body fragments.

Curated by Isabel Tejeda and Isidro Hernández, the exhibition focuses on Nazco's creations during the 70s, a time marked by the dictatorship, in which his work with metals represented a subtle challenge to social conventions, especially in the representation of feminine pleasure. With sculpted bodies that melt and intertwine, Nazco managed to express the beauty of desire through an abstract and bold language.

Born in Los Llanos de Aridane, in La Palma, Nazco's artistic journey began in Tenerife, where she was part of the Nuestro Arte collective, which revolutionized the artistic and literary languages of the Canary Islands between 1963 and 1966. Later, her her career took her to Madrid, where she trained at the Central School of Fine Arts, soon standing out with her first exhibitions and receiving critical acclaim.

'Sensualidad abstracta', Maribel Nazco

In the 70s, Nazco established herself as a pioneer in the use of metal in the plastic arts, with important exhibitions, such as her solo show at the Ramón Durán gallery in Madrid in 1974, and the collaborations with the Sarrió gallery in Barcelona and Aritza in Bilbao in 1975. At this stage, his work caught the attention of renowned critics such as Carlos Areán, who placed it within the concept of "Spanish sculpture and painting", and Gillo Dorfles, who included his work in the his influential monograph Últimas tendencias del arte de hoy. Eduardo Westerdahl also published a monograph on Nazco in the Contemporary Spanish Artists collection, thus consolidating his presence in the Spanish artistic scene.

From the 80s, Nazco gradually stopped working with metal to focus on painting, especially on the representation of metal objects and other urban elements. This is reflected in the series Iconos de la ciudad (1991), where urban objects are treated as still lifes full of visual poetics.

Over the years, his work has been recognized with numerous awards, among which stands out the recent Culture Award of the Community of Madrid in the category of Plastic Arts, awarded in September 2024.

This new exhibition, which can be visited until October 26 at the José de la Mano gallery, as part of Apertura 2024, pays tribute to the most revolutionary stage of Nazco, where its metallic forms and drawings of the 70s shine again with all their strength. The gallery, faithful to its commitment to recover artists silenced or forgotten by history, seeks to rediscover this Canarian creator, a pioneer in breaking molds and exploring the relationship between body, desire and matter in an era marked by censorship.

'Sensualidad abstracta', Maribel Nazco