Anyone who observes a work by Alan Sastre through a screen is denied the astonishment of rediscovering it when seen up close. From a distance, we perceive an elegant gestural abstraction loaded with materiality\u2014a statement of the pictorial presence that unites the record of the artist’s past presence through his marks with the present presence of the painting as an object in space. However, as we approach and examine it closely, moving side to side to complement our frontal view, we discover that its surface is flat. The material seems to fade into an image, and now the gesture appears more as a representation than a presentation. Once again, we encounter a contradiction: to understand these pieces as images requires an active gaze that gathers different perspectives, reaffirming their condition as objects. Their visual component is so compelling that it invites us to touch them, to see with our fingers after having touched with our eyes. […]<\/p>\n