ANA GALLARDO: WEAVE AND MURMUR

Ana Gallardo (Rosario, Argentina, 1958) arrives at La Oficina with a solo exhibition entitled Manifiesto del murmullo, a project centered on the recovery of the work of her mother, Carmen Gómez Raba. Gallardo revisits photographs of the still lifes her mother painted, subjecting them to processes of enlargement and transformation before transliterating them across different media. The resulting works, encompassing paintings, embroideries and videos, as well as the imposing installation that envelops the exhibition space, revolve around an exploration of memory, absence and the effects of time on visual records.

The project also emerges from a degree of involuntariness in the manipulation of the images. As they were enlarged, the data became altered, and the original pixels generated new abstract forms, producing hidden codes that the artist subsequently translated into oil painting and embroidery. Resembling organic textures, these forms function visually as a distorted weave that speaks of what remains unseen, of memory, and of that which proves difficult to represent in literal terms.

Manifiesto del murmullo is thus conceived as a movement across scales, materials and temporalities, transforming the image into a space of investigation and transformation. Conceptually, the exhibition also engages with forms of resistance to the postmodern logic in which extimacy prevails. In the face of the imperative to make everything visible, Gallardo reclaims secrecy and mystery as spaces in which freedom and imagination can unfold.

Ana Gallardo: Manifiesto del murmullo is on view until 19 December 2026 at La Oficina, Morenés Arteaga, 9, Madrid, Spain.