Exhibitions
Mònica Vilert traces the secret paths of matter
Laberint brings together at Ca l'Arenas a selection of recent and retrospective works that explore the limits of painting between the poetics of silence, texture and space.
Painting can be a surface, but also a territory to explore, a volume that demands touch or a space to get lost in. This is one of the intuitions that run through Laberint , the exhibition with which Mònica Vilert (Mataró, 1966) returns to her city after a few years of absence. Ca l'Arenas, Mataró Museum, welcomes this approach to a trajectory marked by constant research on the subject and the boundaries between painting, relief and sculpture.
The exhibition, open from October 23, 2026 to April 25, 2027, brings together for the first time before the public a selection of recent works and pieces from other moments in his career. The set allows us to recognize the coherence of an artistic research that, far from being limited to the traditional resources of painting, interrogates the expressive possibilities of materials and the way in which they transform our perception of the work.
In Vilert's universe, matter is never a passive element. Wax, fiberglass, felt, plaster, marble dust, sand, paper, fabric or cement become instruments of an experimentation that alters expectations and shifts the boundaries between what seems soft and what is rigid, between surface and volume, between physical presence and the sensation of emptiness. Each material unfolds its own identity, but it is in their combination that new formal and sensorial possibilities appear.
The whites and greys, so characteristic of his work, contribute to building a language of great chromatic restraint. This reduction does not imply a renunciation of expressiveness, but a way of intensifying the gaze on textures, shadows, reliefs and variations in light. The essential forms and structures that refer to nature coexist with a subtle geometry, in which the pictorial gesture is transformed into construction and the work acquires an almost architectural presence.
The title of the exhibition suggests a journey without a single direction. Some pieces evoke labyrinthine structures, while others extend as large silent surfaces that invite leisurely observation. In this space of contemplation, memory and perception acquire a fundamental role: painting ceases to be just an image to become a physical and mental experience.
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