Precisamente porque el rosa me incomoda ('Precisely Because Pink Makes Me Uncomfortable') is Violeta Maya's (Madrid, 1993) first solo exhibition at Alzueta Gallery's Main Space in Barcelona. The exhibition is the result of her time at the gallery's residency space on the Costa Brava, where theartist has created a new series of paintings, ceramic sculptures, and a large central installation.
True to its title and consistent with Violeta's body of work, this project is autobiographical. It emerges from the artist's need to delve into and better understand her feminine identity—a journey she visually undertakes using a palette of new colors and forms, a more figurative and concise language.While her painting remains rooted in abstraction, this project marks a turning point, boldly incorporating more sinuous, cellular, organic, and fluid forms in transformation. With her painting, Maya calls for and traverses a world of curves and silhouettes that directly allude to the female body, both externally and internally. Thus, this exhibition is a crucial moment for reflecting on femininity, as well as the associations and stereotypes surrounding it.
At times, her paintings appear to linger in a state of fluidity, as if still in the process of figuring out how to compose themselves into an image. Simultaneously, this hypnotic state of latency, these indeterminate landscapes, gradually evolve toward a more defined and personal imaginary realm connected to her current life's moment. It marks a point in her career where the coherence between her work and her inner world becomes radical.
The paintings are executed with pigment, water, and acrylic on canvas. Another constant pursuit for Maya is finding a balance between control and chance, rigor and unpredictability. While there are fixed decisions in each painting process—such as color, formal imagery, and compositional style—these are influenced by external conditions like humidity, temperature, or even the slope of the floor. The reaction of pigment to water, the drying time of a stain, or the encounter between two colors that melt more than expected are certainly uncontrollable events that define the process and outcome of the work. Thus, each piece is the result of an almost magical thinking that allows chance to play its part. In this case, producing from a different location (Costa Brava instead of her usual studio in Madrid) has definitely influenced the painting: high humidity slows drying, and the studio floor's slope extends the stain, giving rise to special, unrepeatable, and unique works, entirely tied to the time and place of their creation.
The exhibition includes a series of new hand-glazed ceramic sculptures produced in Madrid, where Maya focuses on exploring textures, finishes, and sensations, infusing the elements with new movement and temporality. The central installation is a composition of hand-painted fabrics that together cascade to form a small room, creating a new atmosphere of retreat and calm. Within this space, there is a constantly flowing water fountain. The presence of water, with its constant flow, creates a multisensory experience, adding a layer of sound and establishing a rhythm that accompanies the contemplation of the entire exhibition. Symbolically, this aquaticelement emphasizes the constant concepts of fluidity and transformation in her work. This installation completes the cycle, emerging as a complete, immersive experience that welcomes and nurtures the visitor.
Through this new imagery of delicacy but also strength, the exhibition "Precisely Because Pink Makes Me Uncomfortable" represents a reconciliation with femininity. It also challenges the conventional perception of the feminine—asserting powerful attributes such as ambition, courage, and determination.
Sofía Corrales Akerman
Press release courtesy Alzueta Gallery.
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