The artistic work that Alba Galocha (Santiago de Compostela, 1990) has been developing for years the drink of his memories and his memory; From some early works where the allusion to the Galician context of her birth was very present, the evolution of her creation has also gone through deepening herself and, consequently, her work process.
The evocations of the lived are now presented in this exhibition, The body knows, the head resists, with a suggestive and enigmatic title at the same time, which makes us think about that duality between the physical and the intellectual. The abstract figures in thread unfold across the canvases in an exercise that has a lot to do with performance. Galocha abandons the tension to let himself be carried away by the form and by the body, by a conscious rest that composes what we now have before us.
Unravel, 2022. Hand embroidery with thread on 100% cotton fabric – 83.5 x 77 cm
In the creative processes of artists, two approaches are usually imposed: on the one hand, the investigative and meticulous one that precedes the materialization in the work. On the other, the intuitive, based on doing and doing, on letting the process itself create the form and specify what drives the artist to work. Alba Galocha is in this second group. It is his body, his stimulus and the execution itself who are in charge of formalizing what we see. Do and do like a mantra, like a conscious exercise in which the inspiration take the reins. Committed to her work, Galocha investigates tirelessly until she finds work that reflects what she herself is experiencing and living in her skin.
Blanda, 2022. Hand embroidery with thread on 100% cotton fabric – 48 x 45 cm
Based on the exercises he uses in other creative fields (such as acting), Galocha transfers stopping and asking his body how it is (if it feels pain, relief, tension…) to transfer it to his canvases. It is an attempt to put the energies between the mental and the physical into dialogue, and strike a balance between the two.
He body it is the main element of this artist’s work since its beginnings and this series is also an attempt to reconcile with it. The pieces in tissuebut also the ceramicsThey have a lot of physicality, a reflection of herself.
Somehow, I have the feeling that each and every one of the pieces in the exhibition are self-portraits of my body.
Pins that go through fabrics, fabrics that open up and reveal others underneath, abstract patterns that converge in the center of the composition, lines that seem scars, threads that fall… There is a bit of Alba Galocha in each of the pieces, of knowing herself through what her body says, and taking this to the fabric in a formalization that bets on contrasts between solidity and flexibility, between hardness and softness. Ceramics and fabrics become metaphors for a vulnerability brave, resilient.
Body, 2022. Ceramic (refractory clay) – 25 x 21 cm
This exhibition shows how an artist is capable of displaying the means, the techniques and the forms through the process; also to show a plastic quality and a creative commitment beyond oneself. In the end, we can all feel that those wounds open in the fabrics they are ours; and it is that the body always knows, even if the head resists…