SWAB
Barcelona Art Fair

BETA is delighted to present its participation in the 16th edition of Swab Barcelona, with a solo project by Spanish artist Carlos Herraiz. Herraiz presented a new series of paintings, and a re-interpretation of his ongoing exploration of textiles, first exhibited in ‘MUDA’, our first exhibition in Barcelona.

Herraiz’s work focuses on the exploration of ideas such as the passage of time and the traces of oblivion, of the succession of what was present and what is now absent. It is exactly this exploration which eventually drew the artist’s attention away from trying to capture ideas in the confined spaces of the canvas and the studio. Herraiz began to leverage the forces of the elements and the natural world, to create works that capture the passage of time in its different expressions, and offer different ways to connect and feel connected to others through materials. His new series of paintings was produced over spring and summer of 2023 at the artist’s refuge in the mountains surrounding Barcelona. This place affords Herraiz time and space to connect with himself, with nature, and with the two seemingly separate artistic processes that coalesce in this series.

Herraiz uses extracts from the textile archive from which the works in ‘MUDA’ were born, and attaches them to canvases that have undergone a long and slow process of transformation; being painted throughout the day, only to be altered, ripped, or torn, by the end of it. Every element of the work undergoes a transformational process, and only exists for a moment before morphing into something else. They become but reflections of what once was, a fading echo in the distance. In these experimental, hybrid works, the canvas ceases to be rigid and tense. Herraiz approaches the material and the medium from its fragility and vulnerability. They act as an anchoring point between the artist’s past and present practice.