Ruben Alterio

Ruben Alterio

20th March- 4th April

For his very first exhibition in London. We are delighted to show a collection of Ruben's paintings this March.

Ruben Alterio, the material qualities of paper represent the primary force underpinning his painting. It has remained both constant and omnipresent in his trajectory as an artist. Indeed, the creative process is born in the exchange between the painter and his support, the point of origin where the different facets of his work unfold. A novel texture endowed with a different degree of absorbance, the smooth surface of paper confers upon the artist a freedom of expression that is symbolic of an art form in a perpetual state of becoming. It can never be finished.

Only the ephemeral is of lasting value in Alterio’s work. His tableaux place in relief the performative act of the paintbrush; the Dionysian dance of the instrument over the surface of the paper leaving in its wake the trace of each fibre, each oscillation. For Ruben, to be is to paint. He thus invites you to drift anachronically through his world: a world inhabited by barques, animals, transparencies, silhouettes and spectres that hide in the depths of each work. The composition often takes the form of a close-up that leaves an open frame, evoking what lies beyond. A universe of shadows and mirages, of colours sullied on the palette, of traces in perpetual flux. Red, white and black predominate – the colours of fire, with its flames, smoke and cinders, suggests Alterio. Or perhaps the colours of a passion, the echoes of a distant barrio in Buenos Aires that resonate through the winding passages of the Butte Montmartre.

The exhibition will include a collection of Bronze sculptures by leading contemporary sculptors, Tommy Rowe and Chris Buck.

Ruben Alterio