Annette Barcelo: Live Your Transformation

The exhibition of Annette Barcelo at Madragoa in Lisbon is a version of a solo presentation that took place at der TANK—the exhibition space of Art Gender Nature at HGK in Basel—last June. In few months, we have been exposed twice to the work of Annette Barcelo—unknown to many and rather unexposed till this moment. The last years, we are seeing how the practices of many female artists of older generations are resurfacing. This poses many questions: was the work of Annette Barcelo not relevant till now? Or are we just learning to read its relevance now? I would insist on the second. Due to structural reasons many of the dimensions that are fundamental in her practice were not present in the art world of two and three decades ago. The well-being of the mind that paints, the importance of art as a medium to deal with emotions and to express the need to connect realms that are differently real, like moods, dreams, mental states, and storytelling. Annette Barcelo’s work is defined by two methods. One, the transfer of emotional intensity to the natural world, the animals, the flowers. And the creation of recurring themes and emblematic figures that shape a personal and, by now, collective mythology on life and death, on life and disappearance, on life and re-appearance (mostly through her inverted glass paintings). Far before the notion of co-existence was so present in our lives, Annette Barcelo surrounded herself with a natural world in equal terms with her human world. Her animals and flowers are created to provide her support, to hold her, to be the origin of a new world where all forms of life have the same rights and status. Her world and themes have a common trait: they are all openness. They are all readiness in the awe of the magical world where life rules. —Chus Martínez (Please visit here for the full text.)