Marcos Lozano Merchán. Entre el mito y el logos

May 30th - June 23rd, 2024

Casa de Vacas

Parque de El Retiro. Paseo de Colombia, 1. Madrid. Spain

Marcos Alonso Merchán presents in Madrid a pictorial reading of the founding myths of our culture. The exhibition is curated by Jean-Luc Martinez, former president and director of the Louvre Museum; by Pascale Martinez, professor of art history and PhD in contemporary art history; and by the French writer and philosopher Fabrice Hadjadj.

Marcos Lozano Merchán (Madrid, 1990) is a Spanish artist whose work is inspired by an incessant search for beauty through contemporary art. In the artist's own words: "My work is always situated in confrontation with an experience of Beauty in a tragic way, in the awareness that our being is constantly torn between an overflowing joy of knowing we exist and a profound anguish before the reality of death". His visual thought revisits and updates the pictorial tradition of the Siglo de Oro and articulates a continuity in the history of art, in such a way that he renews both figuration and the genre of history painting. This programmatic work has led him to exhibit his paintings and sculptures in Spain, France and Italy.

Entre el mito y el logos takes the viewer into the creative universe of Marcos Lozano Merchán, thanks to 41 paintings, produced between 2018 and 2023, and featuring characters taken from the Bible and Greek mythology who communicate effort or passion. Portraits, self-portraits, allegories, still lifes, Promethean or softly feminine figures. The artist thus tackles the foundational myths that run through our culture on canvas, wood and marble, with a mastery of technique, materials and a dark polychromy that does not lose sight of the fact that only from the uneasiness it conveys can the beauty he is trying to achieve with his work emerge. Among other works, "David and Goliath", "Apollo and Marsias", "Judith and Holofernes", "Leda and the Swan" and "Dibutades" stand out.

To complete the exhibition, the artist presents a bronze sculpture. It is Noah's head, one of the elements of the colossal Storm Cube project, designed for the Louvre Museum. A total and immersive work of art that would invite us to question our relationship with nature, emphasising the relevance of an integral ecology in our relationship with the cosmos, using the archetypal image of Noah and the Flood. The entire 5-metre high sculpture of Storm Cube will be on display from September at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with texts by the three curators. Jean-Luc Martinez, former president and director of the Louvre Museum and current French ambassador for artistic heritage; by Pascale Martinez, professor of art history and PhD in the history of contemporary art; and by the French writer and philosopher Fabrice Hadjadj.

Following his exhibition in Madrid, Marcos Lozano Merchán's work will be on view at the Moretti Gallery in London during London Art Week. A solo exhibition, entitled Marcos Lozano: A Reflection on Time for the National Gallery's Bicentenary, and produced in collaboration with the National Gallery as part of the commemoration of the bicentenary of the prestigious museum.

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