Exhibitions
Gabriel Cualladó, the poetry of simplicity
Can Mario, in Palafrugell, hosts a selection of the work of the Valencian photographer, marked by intimate portraits, everyday scenes and a sincere look at the world around us.
The Miserachs Biennial dedicates one of its exhibitions to Gabriel Cualladó (Massanassa, 1925 – Madrid, 2003), one of the great names in 20th-century Spanish photography. Entitled Gabriel Cualladó – Poetics of Simplicity , the exhibition will be open from August 1 to October 18, 2026 at Can Mario, Palafrugell, and offers an approach to a career built on self-taughtness and the search for a photographic language of his own.
Cualladó began photography in 1951 and five years later joined the Real Sociedad Fotográfica de Madrid. In 1957 he joined the AFAL group, while simultaneously developing another of his great passions: the construction of a library specializing in photography and an important photographic collection, today considered one of the most outstanding in the State.
Fifí. Arriondas, Asturias, 1959, © Hereus Gabriel Cualladó.
His photography is based on proximity. With a special aesthetic and social sensitivity, Cualladó turned the family environment, friends, neighbors and everyday scenes into photographic material. His portraits, far from any artifice, stand out for a combination of technical rigor, naturalness and a profound capacity for observation.
The recognition of his work was especially consolidated during the 1980s, with exhibitions that helped to position him as an essential figure in Spanish photography. Among these stands out the anthological exhibition dedicated to him by the IVAM in 1989. In 1994 he received the National Photography Award of Spain, culminating a career that has continued to exert a notable influence on subsequent generations.
The proposal of the Miserachs Biennial now brings his work closer to a wide audience through a selection of images in which portraits and street scenes predominate. Apparently simple photographs that, under Cualladó's gaze, acquire an extraordinary expressive force and reveal a modernity that continues to be fully valid.
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