Year: 2020
Solo exhibition.
Sculptures made of glass, steel and colored acrylic sheets.
Place: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo en Vidrio (MAVA).
«Geometric Delights» is a collection of sculptures by Mario Valdés crafted from flat glass and translucent acrylic sheets of various colors. These are tinted shapes that leverage the interplay of light with their surfaces to reveal new dimensions in which the artist aims to achieve maximum expression with minimal material.
In these pieces, which are constructed using angles and chromatic planes, it is not the rules of geometry that guide the artist’s work, nor does he attempt to develop colorimetric theories. Instead, they are conceived as an understanding of the space in which they unfold as a concrete metaphysical manifestation. As color is integrated, it emerges, blends, and fades while engaging with space and time, inviting an awareness of a phenomenon intrinsic to human nature: being in the moment.
However, parallel to these conceptual considerations, the sheer pleasure of playing with colored surfaces saturates each sculpture, creating sensory delights through the interplay of shades and transparencies, thereby unveiling the eternal pendulum that carries us from eros to thanatos, from the Apollonian to the Dionysian, from the mundane to the sublime.
The collection of pieces in «Geometric Delights» consists of two series of sculptures:
«Homage to the Cube» and «Unfolding the Cube.»
In «Unfolding the Cube,» Mario Valdés plays with the ideas of constructing and deconstructing prisms to create translucent and dynamic three-dimensional compositions. Many of these are aesthetic exercises inspired by the Transchromies of Cruz-Diez.
In some of these works, he revisits the formal explorations of previous sculptures, emphasizing their constructive aspects.
In others, he employs veiling and gradations with the intention, almost Rothko-esque, of making the colors vibrate and inviting the viewer’s gaze to traverse the interior of the artwork.
UCN9YP, PIRUETA 1
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet
Two colors: party yellow, bluish violet
2020
16 x 22 x 11 cm.
UCN8RB, PIRUETA 2
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet
Two colors: avatar blue, akari red
2020
14 x 20 x 21 cm.
CN3WG2PV, DRAGON
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet, painted steel
Five colors: white, Paris green, manga pink, love pink, prophet violet
2019
12 x 29 x 12 cm.
UCN6M2P, TRIBUTE TO THE ILL
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet
Three colors: mauve, manga pink, Alice pink
2020
18 x 14 x 14 cm.
UCN5B0CRBG, TRIBUTE TO THE FIGHT AGAINST ILLNESS
Laminated glass, frosted glass, colored acrylic sheet
Five colors: achromatic, black, electric blue, Madrid red, surgical green
2020
20 x 22 x 18 cm.
UCN3GR0C, TRIBUTE TO ROTHKO
Laminated glass, frosted glass, colored acrylic sheet
Three colors: colorless, akai red, bright green
2020
13 x 13 x 13 cm.
UCN4B0CR
Laminated glass, frosted glass, colored acrylic sheet
Three colors: colorless, zeppelin blue, akai red
2020
14 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm.
UCN2BRG
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet, spray paint
Three colors: atmosphere blue, sonar green, vibrant red
2020
14 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm.
UCN1O2R, EMOTIONAL SPACE
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet
Three colors: lava orange, blood red, akari red
2019
11 x 10.5 x 10.5 cm.
UCN10BRG, SPIRAL
Steel, laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet, spray paint
Three colors: atmosphere blue, sonar green, vibrant red
2020
14 x 11.5 x 11.5 cm.
CN4YB, TEMPLE
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet
Two colors: Neptune blue, party yellow
2020
8 x 15 x 13 cm.
CN5RB, PERFUME
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet
Two colors: dark blue, akai red
2020
18.5 x 7 x 5.5 cm.
CN2BS, FRAGMENT OF THE SEA
Laminated glass, acrylic sheet printed with a photograph, steel, painted steel, nylon
2018
33 x 14 x 11 cm.
CN6GYPGM, THE GREEN RAY
Laminated glass, colored acrylic sheet, painted steel, nylon
Five colors: neutral gray, canary yellow, Alicia pink, golden green, mauve
2020
46 x 18 x 19 cm.
UCN7B&W, YIN YANG
Smoked glass, frosted glass
Two colors: achromatic, black
2020
11 x 30.5 x 18 cm.
