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Telúricos
Balcony Gallery
September 21st to mid-November, 2024
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… [...]”
Ozymandias, PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, 1817
Shelley's words in Ozymandias remind us of the inevitable decay of human ambition and the power of time and nature over our creations. This interplay between nature and the human endeavor forms a central theme in Telúricos, the first solo exhibition in Lisbon by Argentinean painter Manuel Aja Espil (b. 1987, Buenos Aires). Presented by Galeria Balcony, the show will feature eight oil landscape paintings that reflect years of research by the artist, who recently won a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.
Telúricos, derived from the Latin word tellur, meaning earth, captures Aja Espil's exploration of uninhabited landscapes as powerful entities. Like the Romantic painters who viewed nature as a divine force, Aja Espil's work seeks to evoke a sense of detachment from contemporary life. His landscapes are visual metaphors that speak to the sublime, the unknown, and the indifferent forces of nature.
This exhibition is the culmination of a project the artist has been working on since the Covid-19 pandemic: the uninhabited landscape. For Aja Espil, who recently migrated to Spain, these works are deeply personal, rooted in memories of the peaceful mountains of the barren Patagonia and the muddy and green pampas of Buenos Aires. These contemplative paintings, as he describes them, are born out of his attachment to the territory as someone in the contemporary diaspora.
The exhibition will be on view from September 21st through mid-November at Galeria Balcony, Lisbon. Manuel is a 2024 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grantee, and prior to that he has been an Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grantee two consecutive years. His most recent shows are Worlds of Exile, in New York (2023), and Memories of Timothy Clarke, in Mallorca (2024).
Pedro Magalhães, Balcony Gallery Director
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
2024
I am honored to have been awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant this year. This grant will allow me to have a year full of exciting new projects, rent and reform my own studio, and help with offset living expenses. Thank you Pollock-Krasner Foundation for believing in me and my work, I am humbled for your support and recognition.
In support of Lee Krasner’s mission to advance the work of visual artists, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation is honored to provide support to the growing list of more than 5,100 #PKFGrantees who have received $89 million across 80 countries to-date.
ph: Lee Krasner in Hans Hoffman’s studio, early 1940s. Photo ©Robert E. Mates and Paul Katz. Lee Krasner artwork ©Pollock-Krasner Foundation/ARS. Image courtesy of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
Worlds of Exile (Project Catalogue)
Self-published. 2024, Spain.
With the generous support of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. 80 pages, edition of 200. Design by João Machado.
Memories of Timothy Clarke
L21 HOME
January 15th to March 15th 2024
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