Cristina de Miguel

Life In Its Poetic Form

August 27 - October 3, 2020

Fredericks & Freiser is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Cristina de Miguel (b. 1987). The Spanish artist makes powerfully expressive figurative paintings built upon a network of art historical affinities, mythological allusions, and energy-filled brushwork.  In her work, formal necessity and intuition overshadow the typical hierarchies of defining a figure. De Miguel insists on the materiality of the painting by fragmenting the figure so that it is no longer the central point of the painting, but the act of painting itself. 

At the heart of this work is de Miguel’s ability to reconcile opposite concepts. Her figures are by turns, dignified and debased. The color palette is vibrant yet there is a discordance that is dark and strangely perverse. Narrative plays a role as well, though de Miguel is wary of anecdote and explanation. 

The eight paintings in this exhibition depict bodies that melt physically, much the way paint drips and melts.  With titles such as “Reggaeton” and “Twerk,” de Miguel paints lone women whose dancing bodies bend at the waist. These upside-down positions are echoed in paintings of couples such as “Puzzle” and “Ambulance” where arched or inverted figures appear to be falling, as in Baroque painting.  Other depictions range from the all-out violence of “Battle” to the intimate alienation of “Melting in Portugal.” However, what gives these works their authority is not their heightened sense of emotional drama, but the physicality of the paint. The fluid drippage not only determines the actions of the melting figures but conveys a psychomatic effect on their bodies and resonates a powerful metaphor for distress.