“cardón, carmín y ola”: cactuses, waves and the colour red in an exhibition by Ximena Maldonado Sánchez at the Bernier/Eliades Gallery

Bernier/Eliades Gallery presents the second solo exhibition of Ximena Maldonado Sánchez in Athens under the title “cardón, carmín y ola”. The artist will be present at the opening on Thursday, May 8, from 19:00 to 21:00. Ximena Maldonado Sánchez’s paintings explore the relationship between humans and ecosystems, focusing on the textures, colors and patterns of plants and minerals.

Inspired by sensory experiences and in-situ stimuli, the artist’s work addresses themes of ecological reciprocity and interaction while attempting to capture the invisible dynamics that shape topography. For Ximena Maldonado Sánchez, the artistic process begins with the observation of the landscape and evolves into a painting that engages the whole body. Through a fluid interweaving of figuration and abstraction, she creates new, unreal worlds where both elements coexist.

The title of the exhibition “cardón, carmín y ola” comes from the constant dialog between land and sea in the artist’s work. The word cardón refers to a type of cactus found in arid regions, especially in Latin America. Carmín is the bright red color, but also the intensity, while the word ola refers to the waves of the sea and metaphorically to the ripples of memory and movement. Cacti and coral are cohesive elements of the exhibition, the rich palette of reds and blues that evoke the desert and the depths of the ocean, and the organic forms that reflect the fluidity of the artistic process. In Ximena Maldonado Sánchez’s work, the presence of water is intense, shaping the silhouettes of mountains and geological formations and defining the vegetation.

A few words about the artist

Ximena Maldonado Sánchez was born in 1999 in Irapuato, Mexico and received her Masters in Painting from ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels, where she currently lives and works. She has exhibited internationally, with a solo exhibition at Bernier/Eliades and participation in group exhibitions in Belgium and France. She has participated in artist-in-residence programs at Fondation Moonens and La Napoule Art Foundation, and this year she will show her work in Sicily and Finland. In 2023, she was awarded the Laurent Moonens Prize.