Mònica Subidé
Sunrise
Brussels | Allard 41 April 12 – June 8, 2024
Nino Mier Gallery is thrilled to present Sunrise, our latest exhibition Mònica Subidé, an artist from Barcelona now living and working in Montnegre Park in Catalonia. Comprising oil on linen paintings and charcoal, pencil, gouache, and ink works on paper, the presentation will be on view in Brussels from April 12 – June 8, 2024.
In Sunrise, Subidé introduces a vibrant palette into her work and enriches her environments and backgrounds. Her oil paintings feature semi-cubist portraits of individuals close to her set against patterned or color-blocked backgrounds. In her works on paper, Subidé transitions her enigmatic figures from minimal, interior settings to lush outdoor landscapes. Flowers, rainbows, and grass envelop each figure in heavenly atmospheres. Unlike her previous works, which had a contemplative quality, these new pieces are dynamic: frenetic brushstrokes blur the boundaries between human and environment. For example, in After the Storm, a figure sits against a purple-grey mass resembling storm clouds, seamlessly blending into the lush abstraction around them. In Rainbow, a dancing figure's contours mirror the sky, merging with it at times.
Last summer, Subidé relocated from the city to a mountainous, forested area of the Spanish countryside. Each morning, her studio is bathed in brilliant orange light as birds welcome the day. She takes walks through the surrounding landscape teeming with plants and wildlife. At night, an intense quiet and darkness envelop her remote location. Initially feeling consumed by the forest, Subidé gradually acclimated to this new environment.
Her solitary communion with nature is evident in works that dissolve the self into the surrounding environment. Some pieces depict figures blending into exterior gardens and fields, while others are closely cropped portraits where forest colors, textures, and forms make up facial features. Flowers become flushed cheeks in some works, while green strokes resembling grass form facial contours in others. Such linkages between the figure and the environment portray Subidé's intense experience acclimating to her new surroundings, capturing emotional contrasts of joy, melancholy, loneliness, and immersion in nature.
Mònica Subidé (b.1974, Barcelona, ES; lives and works the Natural Park of Montnegre, Catalonia, ES) studied at the Centre d’Art Massana, Barcelona. She has exhibited with Nino Mier Gallery, Brussels and Los Angeles; Yiri Arts, Taipei; Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin, Germany; Ehrhard Florez, Madrid, Spain; and Soy Capitán Gallery, Berlin, Germany.