Exhibitions
The Dreams of Reason by Alfonso Galván
In the heart of Vigo, the Galician city's Museum of Contemporary Art (MARCO) continues its robust program of temporary exhibitions. From April 4th to September 7th, you can see Alfonso Galván's exhibition, curated by Miguel Fernández-Cid. Alongside this temporary exhibition, Generación 2025 can be seen on the ground floor, with Laura Lio's solo exhibition opening on June 20th.
Trained at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts, his first exhibition in 1973 is a distant memory. Galván combines and experiments with personal symbolism, coupled with a vision of a transcendent, even imagined, reality. The Madrid-born artist's work has a strong social content, incorporating cultural references, symbols, and playfulness.
Influenced by American hyperrealism, Alfonso Galván creates an exhibition that doesn't follow a chronological concept—presenting contemporary works and works from previous decades—but rather establishes two distinct elements: one with the presence of animals in dense, closed scenes; another with a more lyrical appearance, with open landscapes and orientalist references, including texts in Chinese, especially from the Daodejing.
Neither of these areas of the exhibition seeks to reproduce reality, nor does the artist work within it, but Galván seeks to control, to breathe into his compositions the aspects that concern him. An important but sometimes forgotten artist, he now regains his place in the art scene, and does so with a work that is distinct from those of his generation.
“I never paint from nature. I invent the place. Precisely because they are invented, the descriptions are very precise. If I have to paint a person or an animal, I sometimes use a photograph or notes. I can paint from memory because I have observed nature a lot. I have learned to connect with the landscape: visual, olfactory, and tactile,” explains Alfonso Galván about the exhibition at the Vigo Museum of Contemporary Art and his approach to creation.
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