We are pleased to present Irma Álvarez-Laviada (Gijón, 1978) with her first exhibition at the Luis Adelantado Gallery, Modalities of the Visible, which will open on 24 November in the gallery’s main space.
The Asturian artist is developing her thesis at the University of Vigo, under the following title: El vacío como despliegue autorreflexivo de la propia obra (Emptiness as a self-reflexive display of the work itself). Undoubtedly, this research work gives her work a theoretical character and this can be appreciated in its formal solvency. It is also a declaration of intentions regarding her plastic work, in which painting goes beyond the limits of the material itself, approaching the ways of doing and thinking, typical of sculpture and installation. Within this idea, it is worth mentioning Irma’s interest in the notion of emptiness, which is the starting point for some of her most representative works.
In Modalities of the visible, we can find a series of pieces that question us about the very limits of perception. A wink that alludes to the intellectual John Berger and his Modes of Seeing. The gaze is not innocent, it always emanates consciousness and decides what is visible. Choice is also, therefore, a mode of the visible.
Irma’s works show gaps that can be filled in by the gaze. Other works speak to us of the everyday transformed into a work of art thanks to a gaze that gives them meaning through the transience of the present.