Tangles, disagreements and drawings by three abstract artists | Present

In the new exhibition at La Casa de los Contrafuertes, titled “The Plot,” three abstract artists try to merge events with unpredictable endings into a plastic ideology.

In the art exhibition, composed of threads, transparencies of mylar paper, ambient lights and shadows, and the weight of oil paint through the passage of the wind, its creators try to bring back schemes of the artisanal and learned trade, with the reality that they seek to find unifying keys to decipher this plot.

In the deconstruction of Las tanañas by Ana Rosa Rivera, for example, she had proposed to weave a pattern of some mundillo knots, but when executing the knots she wanted to break that tradition. From there the concept of presenting more of the tangle of a pattern that can be repeated is developed.

Here the plot varies because depending on the time and space exercised, there is a predisposed free jump. Rivera said that, “in the case of wooden bobbins, it is precisely in that tangle that the verticality arises, given by the weights of the carved coils.”

“In my creative process, I use cotton thread fabrics as a canvas, but my focus is on both construction and destruction. I sometimes embroider on these fabrics creating images and patterns that pay homage to the craft skills passed down through generations. However, in other cases, I carefully unravel the fabric, breaking down what was previously held together. In this act of simultaneous construction and deconstruction, I seek a new perspective on these traditions,” Rivera said.

“In the process of creating my installations, I intertwine elements from my workspace: torn and restored fabrics, industrial ropes, and sturdy woods. My work is not limited to the reconstruction of artisanal tradition; rather, it seeks to transcend the very concept of craftsmanship. The experiences transmitted through generations become not only a base vocabulary, but also a material for deconstruction. Each stitch and each unraveling represents the collective experience of countless generations, and through my work, I seek to reimagine and rearticulate this tradition for a new society, where the boundaries between old and new are blurred, and where creativity becomes a form of continuous evolution,” added Rivera.

Ivelisse Jiménez, in “Bring, make, vanish,” begins a series of drawings as a way of activating herself in the face of the paralysis that the circumstance of the genocide in Palestine initially produced.

“The process of working on a light material, like paper, became for me a reflection on the cycles of action: Begin, develop and finish. The process of painting and drawing is part of my need to keep alive, in movement, a thought that is not instrumental. In my work I usually contrast opaque and transparent materials, creating a dense and luminous surface simultaneously. For these drawings I wanted to limit myself to using oil on semi-opaque mylar paper. These pieces can be seen from both sides. On one side you can see the other, creating different images according to the changes in light. The way the drawings are hung in the exhibition space makes them susceptible to the wind, so they are in constant movement,” Jiménez said.

“There is a web of life, underlying the web of fabric. The designs are adjusted to the human body and I want to reflect, in my work, the history of those techniques that I learned from my grandmother and my mother and her ancestors. It is a plot through generations, where space, time, the illuminated sculptures and their reflection on the wall produce another dimension,” Rivera said.

“The work, ‘Still undetermined’, suggests a staircase that aims to be resolved and at the same time suggests continuation, the sculpture can continue to develop. It has forks, tunnels… I apply techniques learned from crafts, but manufacturing an unknown shape, with known elements, an indefinable shape, with recognizable materials and elements,” Rivera pointed out.

Kristine Serviá “Drawings 1 to 4” are a series of compositions where the artist continues to explore the construction of segments of geometric spaces.

“The drawings, made in layers, fluctuate visually, between flexible grids on rigid grids, and vice versa, and other rigid grids on flexible segments. My work is inspired by architecture, geometric abstraction, and sequential construction systems like assembly lines,” Serviá explained.

To enjoy “The Plot,” the current exhibition at La Casa de los Contrafuertes —located at 101 San Sebastián Street, Old San Juan—, it is recommended to make an appointment from Monday to Thursday, and it is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. from 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm