Galería Cayón • Sandback / Herminio

Sandback/Herminio

December 12, 2020 - February 19, 2021
Madrid

Galería Cayón is pleased to present a joint exhibition of Fred Sandback (Bronxville, New York, 1943 – New York, 2003) and Herminio Álvarez (La Caridad, Asturias, 1945)—two artists whose language and perception of space resemble and complement each other in many ways.

In this dialogue, both artists draw from the most minimalist concepts, remaining true to their discourse and artistic trajectory—where sculpture dissolves into space, like an installation, almost ephemeral.

This first dual exhibition at the Blanca 9 space offers the opportunity to observe how, despite coming from different backgrounds, both artists arrive at similar conclusions regarding balance, tension, and the breaking down of the opacity of sculptural material.

Sandback broke the traditional notions of sculpture as an object defined by mass, and is best known for his use of colored acrylic and metal threads, simplifying the physicality of the work to the utmost degree. His pieces are characterized by extreme material and formal simplicity, completely transforming the physical space in which they are displayed. In this way, Fred Sandback’s works evoke a fragile and ethereal architecture that seems to brush against the immaterial.

Building on the principles of minimal sculpture, Herminio’s works experiment with the ideas of instability and uncertainty, presenting themselves to the viewer as almost improbable elements. The simplicity of the forms that make up his structures connects with Suprematist movement aesthetics, further evoked through his repeated use of the diagonal—an element that also suggests the characteristic instability of his sculptures.