Galeria Fortes Vilaça is pleased to present Alejandra Icaza’s third solo show in Brazil. The Spanish artist’s exhibition consists of paintings inspired by undersea forms and colors, together with never-before-shown collages.

In the present works, Icaza uses a palette of vibrant colors. In Las Medusas de Matisse, the artist adopts a brutal coloring, in which citric yellows are highlighted along with vivid oranges and reds against an intense blue background. As the title indicates, this painting refers to Henri Matisse, who held that color was the “main factor in painting,” and who, in his fauve phase, sought for a “balanced art, without perturbing or depressing themes,” just as Icaza does.

These paintings are also striking for their shapes, which are at times spontaneous, gestural, and voluptuous, while at others they arise from a basis of precise, thin and delicate lines. In the paintings Tomates del Mar and Japanese Flowers, Icaza draws with a drypoint needle over the thick surfaces of paint and wax. The deep-cut lines compose a texture that makes the canvases resemble engraved printing plates. Flowers, leaves and starfish are drawn repetitively, creating patterns that cover the entire surface.

This time, Alejandra Icaza brings more elements to her painting. In the work Vegetalia, besides resorting to drawing, the artist glues bright beads to the canvas, punctuating the composition and proposing a discussion about the limits between painting, drawing and collage. In all of her artworks the artist proposes a “visual rhythm,” suggesting movement and vibration. Her painting lacks any linear narrative or resemblance with reality.

Alejandra Icaza was born in Bilbao, in 1966. She currently lives and works in Madrid. Her recent exhibitions most notably include solo shows at Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery, in New York, USA, in 2007, and at the Centro de Arte de Salamanca, in Spain, in 2004.