• Alejandro Corujeira | La luz fugaz

    17 November, 2023 - 19 January, 2024

     

     
  • “The rose is without ‘why’; it blooms simply because it blooms. It pays no attention to itself, nor does it ask whether anyone sees it.”
    - Angelus Selesius
  • Installation view, Alejandro Corujeira | La luz fugaz (Fleeting light), Cecilia Brunson Projects. Photography by Lucy Dawkins
  • Cecilia Brunson Projects is pleased to present La luz fugaz (Fleeting light), the gallery’s third solo exhibition by Alejandro Corujeira (b. 1961, Argentina), featuring a new series of paintings produced in the last year. Created following a period the artist spent in a monastery, this new body of work emerges from a point of intuition and absence of thought, forming organically and through a trained control over the subtleties of colour and translucency of paint. The paintings are an invitation to a meditative process, as our eyes calibrate to this near invisibility, as if adjusting to a new light.
     
  • In an interview with Michele Faguet, the artist elaborates on this, describing the recent evolution of his work. 'These last...
    Alejandro Corujeira in his Madrid studio. Photography by César Segarra

    In an interview with Michele Faguet, the artist elaborates on this, describing the recent evolution of his work.

     

    "These last works that have absorbed me for more than a year are traversed by multiple issues, but perhaps a commitment to the barely visible is the quality that is most conspicuous, which is surprising even to me. It is never easy to know where one series ends and another begins, but in this case the appearance of this new body of work was unexpected. Normally my working process involves modifying and referencing previous series, until new paintings come into being, but this was not the case here: for the first time ever, the works erupted almost out of nowhere—without antecedents or roots. I arrived to the studio one day and began working on the first painting as if someone were instructing me what I had to do. During that time, there was a book lying on my drawing table that contained digital reproductions of Emily Dickinson’s herbarium accompanied by a selection of her poems on botany. So perhaps this series also owes something to its presence.
     
    I began to develop several small works, and sometime later I became aware of certain things that were gestating in those paintings. My eyes began accommodating themselves to that invisibility little by little, and day by day I was able to maximize this relation. At first, it was just a form, but as I progressed, there was no form but rather a unique relationship between space and form. The light began to flood everything, hence the title of the exhibition: “La luz fugaz” (Fleeting Light). "
     
     
     
     
    • Alejandro Corujeira Latidos [Beats], 2022 Acrylic on linen 45 x 30 cm 17 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      Latidos [Beats], 2022
      Acrylic on linen
      45 x 30 cm
      17 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
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    • Alejandro Corujeira El viento [The wind], 2023 Acrylic on linen 40 x 40 cm 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      El viento [The wind], 2023
      Acrylic on linen
      40 x 40 cm
      15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
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    • Alejandro Corujeira El agua [The water], 2022 Acrylic on linen 40 x 40 cm 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      El agua [The water], 2022
      Acrylic on linen
      40 x 40 cm
      15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
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    • Alejandro Corujeira Expansión [Expansion], 2022 Acrylic on linen 40 x 30 cm 15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      Expansión [Expansion], 2022
      Acrylic on linen
      40 x 30 cm
      15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
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    • Alejandro Corujeira El inicio [The beginning], 2022 Acrylic on linen 40 x 40 cm 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      El inicio [The beginning], 2022
      Acrylic on linen
      40 x 40 cm
      15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in
      Enquire
    • Alejandro Corujeira Anunciación I [Annunciation I], 2022 Acrylic on canvas 60 x 50 cm 23 5/8 x 19 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      Anunciación I [Annunciation I], 2022
      Acrylic on canvas
      60 x 50 cm
      23 5/8 x 19 3/4 in
      Enquire

  • The paintings are formed of layers of diaphanous colour, from which nebulous shapes - sometimes suggestive of botanical, microbial or spirit-like bodies - appear out of the canvas, better read as passing shadows or tricks of the light than as anything concrete. Delicate and almost illusory, they approach a point of absolute abstraction. The effect is synaesthetic; visual elements such as form and colour seem subordinate to the sense of quiet and stillness achieved.

  • Alejandro Corujeira, El universo [The universe], 2023, acrylic on linen, 170 x 200 cm (66 7/8 x 78 3/4 in)
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  • “These last works emerged after my recent stay in a monastery. I’ve commented in the past on how my work...
    Alejandro Corujeira in his Madrid studio. Photography by César Segarra
    “These last works emerged after my recent stay in a monastery. I’ve commented in the past on how my work is situated between sleep and wakefulness, and in general this is something I observe in abstraction: I am trying to highlight the “without why” that intervenes in the origin of the images. Rather than a reflection of the inner emotional life of the artist, it is a letting go of inner thoughts so that the image can appear.
     
    Light, however fleeting and ungraspable, invades everything; our eyes, in a certain sense, effortlessly absorb what is shown there. This is in keeping with my desire that these works function as objects of contemplation—that they hold our attention so that we ask ourselves, from a place outside of rational thought, “What is it that I am seeing here?” It is like a revelation to the senses where the very image or object intervenes and inspires—in the sense of breathing, of being out of breath—preceding intellectual astonishment. The color in these works I perceive and treat as tinted light; maybe that’s why color appears to be applied more sparingly than in previous series."

  • "There are several verses by Angelus Silesius that clearly articulate the idea I mentioned above: “The rose is without ‘why’; it blooms simply because it blooms. It pays no attention to itself, nor does it ask whether anyone sees it.” It is also true that for the images to come alive, to awaken, they require an act of generosity: a viewer that surrenders to them, submitting their soul and emotions. Agnes Martin, in a similar vein, wrote, “When I think of art, I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye, it is in the mind. […] All human knowledge is useless in art work.” This is why I often say that I would like the person who approaches my work to do so with silent eyes, without too much prior information.”

  • Artist's studio. Photography by César Segarra (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Artist's studio. Photography by César Segarra (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Artist's studio. Photography by César Segarra (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Artist's studio. Photography by César Segarra (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Artist's studio. Photography by César Segarra (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

  • Alejandro Corujeira’s artistic trajectory over more than thirty years has demonstrated the lyrical potential of painterly abstraction. With roots in the universal constructivism of Joaquín Torres-Garcia, a pioneering Uruguayan artist who created an alternate narrative of modernist abstraction based on pre-Columbian idioms, Corujeira gradually moved away from the regionalist sensibility of his early works to embrace a fiercely autonomous practice inspired by an abundant array of eclectic and diverse references: the tapestries and prints of Anni Albers, influenced by Andean and Mesoamerican textiles; Brice Marden and Mark Tobey’s painterly interpretations of Eastern calligraphy; the poet Paul Celan’s interrogation of language and loss; the neumes of premodern musical notation, to name only a few.

     

    In this exhibition, the paintings are displayed alongside a selection of sculptures made early in the artist’s career in the 1990s. The influences at the root of Corujeira’s practice are clear here.

  • Left: Hacia el cielo [Towards the sky], 1999, polychrome wood, 30 x 25 x 17 cm (11 3/4 x 9 7/8 x 6 3/4 in). Right: Empatía [Empathy], 2022, acrylic on linen, 130 x 120 cm (51 1/8 x 47 1/4 in)
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  • “There are certainly places with a particular energy that one can connect with and that are conducive to creativity. Before initiating my studies in fine arts, I travelled several times to the Andean region of northern Argentina: there I found a different way of understanding the world. I was initially interested in the forms I saw in ceramics, textiles, and objects, but then I gradually tried to understand how these forms were generated and how they were related to the thought and way of life there. The result of all those trips are the sculptural works presented in this exhibition, which were made in the early 1990s but never exhibited until now.”
    • Alejandro Corujeira Máscara plaza [Plaza mask], 1999 Polychrome wood 28 x 20 x 15 cm 11 x 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      Máscara plaza [Plaza mask], 1999
      Polychrome wood
      28 x 20 x 15 cm
      11 x 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 in
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    • Alejandro Corujeira Amarrador solar [The sun's clasp], 1993 Ceramic and polychrome wood 33 x 18 x 16 cm 13 x 7 1/8 x 6 1/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      Amarrador solar [The sun's clasp], 1993
      Ceramic and polychrome wood
      33 x 18 x 16 cm
      13 x 7 1/8 x 6 1/4 in
      Enquire
    • Alejandro Corujeira Pregunta [Question], 1999 Polychrome wood 22 x 24 x 7 cm 8 5/8 x 9 1/2 x 2 3/4 in
      Alejandro Corujeira
      Pregunta [Question], 1999
      Polychrome wood
      22 x 24 x 7 cm
      8 5/8 x 9 1/2 x 2 3/4 in
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  • 'Like the 1963 album by Bill Evans, Conversations with Myself, where the jazz pianist used the method of overdubbing to...

    Alejandro Corujeira

    Hacia el cielo [Towards the sky], 1999

    Polychrome wood
    30 x 25 x 17 cm (11 3/4 x 9 7/8 x 6 3/4 in)
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    "Like the 1963 album by Bill Evans, Conversations with Myself, where the jazz pianist used the method of overdubbing to engage in conversation with himself, I see these sculptures interacting similarly with my most recent works. There is a light in the sculptures that converses very well with these new works, even though their forms are different and linked to certain symbolic spaces, such as the mask or the plaza, places of attraction and centrality. In a broad sense, these symbolic spaces allow me to feel the continuous presence of poetry, which I accompany as diverse voices. I have always had a special appreciation for this literary genre: my relationship to poetry is formed by the use of words that aspire to revelation and excess, something that I also strive for in painting.”

  • Installation view, Alejandro Corujeira | La luz fugaz (Fleeting light) Cecilia Brunson Projects, 2023-24 Photography by Lucy Dawkins (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Left: Luz II [Light II], 2022, acrylic on linen, 40 x 30 cm (15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in) Right: Luz I [Light I], 2022, acrylic on linen, 45 x 30 cm (17 3/4 x 11 3/4 in) (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Installation view, Alejandro Corujeira | La luz fugaz (Fleeting light) Cecilia Brunson Projects, 2023-24 Photography by Lucy Dawkins (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Alejandro Corujeira, Anunciación I [Annunciation I], 2022 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    Installation view

  • List of works

    Read the full interview with Michele Faguet

    Download artist biography

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