VITORIA-GASTEIZ.- Artium, Basque Museum-Centre of Contemporary Art, presents The Fire of Vision (North Gallery, from 2 June to 1 November 2016), an exhibition that provides an overview of the work of Marina Nez over the past 20 years, a period in which this “longstanding trajectory” artist has forged “a very powerful visual language”. Structured around the poetic concepts of fire and vision, the exhibition displays 38 works from this period –paintings, digital images and video installations– including a large work comprising nine projections especially produced for this exhibition. The Fire of Vision by Marina Nunez is co-produced by Artium in Vitoria-Gasteiz and Sala Alcala 31 in Madrid and curated by Jos Jim閚ez. The official opening of the exhibition includes a conference-conversation between the curator and the artist.
The Fire of Vision is an overview of the work of Marina Nez, which until now could only been seen in small doses as part of the successive unique shows she has been presenting over her more than 20-year career. It is structured upon a poetic core concept whose two components, fire and vision, are essential to understanding her work.
On the one hand, as stated by Jos Jim閚ez, fire represents the image of passion in which human relationships unfold, changing and dynamic, yet at the same time traversed by the most intense light, while on the other hand, vision is the “figure of the look, of eyes that come alive, the transposition of the flow that passes from life to art: to see is to live, to see is to love, to see is to look at art.”
Based on this core concept, 38 works using different techniques and media are displayed, including paintings, digital images and video installations, whose variety helps to appreciate the multimedia dimension that characterises contemporary art and all of Marina Nez’s work. It is also worth noting the presentation of a new piece by the artist, a 9-screen video installation that has been especially produced for this exhibition and that bears the same title: The Fire of Vision (2015).
Marina Nez (Palencia, 1966) resides between Madrid and Pontevedra and is a teacher in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Vigo. Her work deals with the characteristic aspects of the complex reality of our time. It represents different, abhorrent, monstrous beings that exist outside or against the norm. The unusual bodies that populate her paintings, computer graphics or videos speak to us of a metamorphic, hybrid, multiple identity.
In addition to Artium, she has also had solo exhibitions in public centres such as Space One of the Reina Sof韆 (1997), La Gallera in the Community of Valencia (1998), Pilar and Joan Mir Foundation in Palma de Mallorca (2000), Sala de Ver髇icas in Murcia (2001), DA2 in Salamanca (2002), Casa de Am閞ica in Madrid (2004), Cervantes Institute in Paris (2006), La Panera in Lleida (2008), MUSAC in Le髇 (2009), Centre del Carme in Valencia (2010), Sala Rekalde in Bilbao (2011), Patio Herreriano in Valladolid (2012) and Sala Alcal 31 in the Community of Madrid (2015).
The Artium Collection has several works by Marina Nez: a painting from her Vanitas series (1996), two pieces of graphic art from her Madness series (1996) and an installation from her Monsters series (2005). Her work can also be found in the collections of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sof韆, MUSAC in Le髇, Herreriano Patio in Valladolid, La Panera in Lleida, TEA in Tenerife, CAAM in Las Palmas, Es Baluard in Palma de Mallorca, ”La Caixa” Foundation, Bot韓 Foundation, MAC in A Coru馻, CAB in Burgos, FRAC Corse or the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, among others.
