David Rodríguez Caballero

David Rodríguez Caballero, one of the main representatives of contemporary Spanish sculpture, opens his first individual exhibition in London. The exhibition can be visited from February 15 to April 12 at the Río & Meñaka space in the British capital.

Composed of fifteen works in aluminum, brass and copper, in large and small formats, as well as a selection of original drawings on paper never exhibited to date, the first exhibition by David Rodríguez Caballero (Pamplona, 1970) in London, Sculptures and drawings, will present to the British public a tour of his most recent work, in which the artist delves into the concept of the fold, which jumps from paper to sculpture and from drawing to metal. The exhibition also coincides with his fourth solo exhibition at the Marlborough New York gallery.

Framed in the tradition of geometric abstraction, the work of David Rodríguez Caballero has been incorporating in recent years some figurative elements through African iconography, the mask or the urban landscape, taking these references to abstraction, but starting from a inspiration in figurative elements. Light is a key element in his work: “I realized how important light was without knowing it, when I started with origami, folding papers and painting with tones,” says the artist. Depending on how many folds there are, more or less passes. Light for me is matter, not a spotlight that illuminates, it mixes with the material through the process of erosion and inclination of the planes. In the same way, the shadow is part of the light, the non-light. In my works, a tone is generated through curves and folds, where the shadow parts can reach a black, an empty hollow negative through the tone.”

According to Manuel Fontán del Junco, Director of Museums and Exhibitions of the Juan March Foundation and curator of the great retrospective exhibition David Rodríguez Caballero. The fold according to the fold (2018) at the Esteban Vicente Museum in Segovia, “Paper folding has enjoyed and enjoys a certain artisanal, artistic and pedagogical tradition, of which the works of Johannes Itten or Josef Albers with the students of Bauhaus, origami and the Japanese tradition of Origami, perhaps are its most obvious references. The concept of fold has always been present in the history of art, especially since the analyzes of the baroque by authors such as Wölfflin or d'Ors or Deleuze. And it is not difficult to relate two moments apparently as disparate as the era of the baroque and contemporary culture, because both have in common precisely the continuous, tendentially infinite fold, between the real and the imaginary: if 'the fold is the central action of the culture of the Baroque' (Gilles Deleuze), a kind of omnipresent and mediatic digital fold is the central action of contemporary culture, which is produced in an eminently baroque way in forms, gestures and content.

Graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, the work of David Rodríguez Caballero (Pamplona, 1970) has been exhibited in galleries, museums and public institutions around the world, among which the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow stands out ( Russia), the Würth Museum of La Rioja, the Museum of Navarra, the Oteiza Foundation Museum and other institutions in Europe and the United States. In 2012, Marlborough Gallery New York organized his first solo exhibition in Manhattan, Recent Works, at its Chelsea headquarters, which was a critical and public success. His latest individual exhibitions include Alchemy in Motion (2019), in Marlborough New York; The fold according to the fold (2018), at the Esteban Vicente Museum, Segovia; Poetic Abstractions (2017), Marlborough Gallery, Madrid; or Danser La Sculpture (2016), at Espace Meyer Zafra, Paris.

He has been awarded, among others, the First International Prize for Engraving by Bodegas Dinastía Vivanco (La Rioja, 2008), First Prize at the IX Unión Fenosa Collection Exhibition at the Unión Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art (A Coruña, 2006), First Prize of Plastic Arts from the Government of Valencia (Valencia, 2004), First Prize for Painting from Volksbank Paderborn (Paderborn, 1996) and First Prize for Pamplona Young Artists Painting from the Government of Pamplona (Pamplona, 1995).

He has participated in numerous art fairs, such as Art Basel Miami Beach, KIAF Seoul, MACO México, TEFAF Maastricht, Art Rio Río de Janeiro, ARCO Madrid or Armory Show New York, and his work is part of numerous international collections, such as Fundación Coca -Cola (Madrid), Würth Museum (La Rioja), Dinastía Vivanco Wine Culture Museum (La Rioja), Unión Fenosa Museum of Contemporary Art, MACUF (A Coruña), Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid), Olor Visual Collection ( Barcelona), Repsol Collection (Madrid), National Library (Madrid), Pamplona City Council (Pamplona), Palace of the Popes (Viterbo), Volksbang Foundation (Paderborn), Museum of Navarra (Pamplona), National Institute of Statistics (Madrid) and the ISE Cultural Foundation (New York/Tokyo).