REVIEWED: Sandra Gamarra: Blanca


By Martin Macdonald
 
Sandra Gamarra, Blanca I, 2013
3 paintings (oil on canvas) measuring 315 x 175 cm each      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru


Yesterday, on a cold and grey spring afternoon, I visited Blanca (White), an exhibition of new works by Spanish resident Sandra Gamarra (Lima, Peru, 1972) at Galeria Juana de Aizpuru. At this, my favourite Madrid gallery, Gamarra’s pieces - a hybrid combination of painting, sculpture, video, site-specific installations and text - challenge the white cube’s supposed neutrality. Gamarra utilises painting to question both the container - the gallery itself - and its contents – the artworks. Emptiness and absence, two other important themes at Blanca place Gamarra camouflaging herself in her works - as though creating a total whitewash in addition to questioning the role of the artist herself. The role of the viewer, whereby one becomes an intruder rather than a visitor, also comes into play.

Sandra Gamarra, Blanqueo I (Still life), 2013
12 pieces of variable dimensions. Oil on cotton paper, wood frame      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru
Sandra Gamarra, Blanqueo II (Textures), 2013
12 pieces of variable dimensions. Oil on cotton paper, wood frame      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru

In the first room, the whiteness can be overwhelming - from the bright ceiling lights to the white reflective wooden floor. Leaning against the windows, large canvases allow a limited amount of natural light to enter. Blanca I (2013), an installation comprising three large white paintings blends rather well with the architecture - the canvases mimicking the gallery walls and skirting boards. Across are two more works - Blanqueo I (Still life) (2013) and Blanqueo II (Textures) (2013), each installation consisting of 12 small, framed paintings. In typical Gamarra style, the works are often appropriations – amongst them, Ernesto Neto’s Leviathan Thot (2006), a piece made of Lycra tulle, polyamide fabric and styrofoam balls which Gamarra has transformed into oil on cotton paper

Sandra Gamarra, Piece of gallery IV, 2013
7 paintings (oil on canvas) of variable dimensions and a video projection       
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru
Sandra Gamarra, Piece of gallery IV, 2013
7 paintings (oil on canvas) of variable dimensions and a video projection      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru

The second room and its white/grey marble floor further develop the themes of emptiness and absence and feature Gamarra herself - if only via video projections placed behind the canvases but which nevertheless draw the viewer’s attention given the odd sounds they emanate. On the left, Piece of Gallery IV (2013) comprises seven paintings of various sizes depicting the gallery walls and floor - plus a video projection of Gamarra putting her paintings up as well as hiding behind them. Further along, Piece of Gallery V (2013) an installation of six paintings showing the gallery’s interiors also features another video projection of Gamarra and her white works. 

Sandra Gamarra, Blanca I, 2013
6 paintings (oil on canvas) of variable dimensions and video projection      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru
Sandra Gamarra, Blanca I, 2013
6 paintings (oil on canvas) of variable dimensions and video projection      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru

Although not for sale, newspapers painted to look like the marble floor are interspersed throughout the room – the viewer having to constantly look at where one is walking so as not to step on them. Another curious detail can be found in the form of quotes from Ximena Briceño’s short story, A Desert, placed on the gallery walls. If the press release is anything to go by, the viewer is also meant to make a connection between Chile's Atacama desert, where the Pinochet dictatorship scattered its victims' bones and the white gallery space which is “like a desert… a place of passage” and where “these paintings may seem incomplete, as disembodied bones.”  Although a nice touch, this is perhaps unnecessarily asking too much from the viewer. Blanca is nevertheless a splendid exhibition and to the viewer's benefit, Gamarra’s works never really fade into the background - in their own special way, they fill the void.

Partial view of the exhibition "Blanca" by Sandra Gamarra at Galeria Juana d Aizpuru, 2013      
Courtesy of Galeria Juana de Aizpuru

SANDRA GAMARRA: BLANCA AT GALERIA JUANA DE AIZPURU. Madrid, Spain. 13 Apr - 23 May