Vintage of the eighties: the artists who transform the scene

We could talk about a generation, but it is probably more appropriate to present them as a group of colleagues.

Artists, all of them born in the eighties (or on its margins), who coincide in surfing their mid-career on the crest of the wave: as protagonists of major exhibitions in public institutions, boosted by critical recognition, with a promising international projection and a more or less comfortable gap in the often uncomfortable and unpredictable market.

We are referring to June Crespo (Pamplona, ​​1982), Teresa Solar Abboud (Madrid, 1985), Leonor Serrano Rivas (Málaga, 1986), Claudia Pagès (Barcelona, ​​1990), Eva Fàbregas (Barcelona, ​​1988), Julia Spínola (Madrid, 1979), Asunción Molinos Gordo (Aranda de Duero, 1979) and Patricia Esquivias (Caracas, 1979).

Go ahead and say that they are all that are there, etc.

And another note before proceeding: although all the names are feminine, that is not what this report is about.

Simply put, there is the happy circumstance that the national artistic avant-garde is largely led by women.

The eight creators (of which two, Crespo and Serrano Rivas, could not participate in the portraits that illustrate this text) represent, in any case, the unfathomable diversity that defines current creation - here and everywhere -, which, ultimately, could well be considered their main uniting point.

That, and undisputed quality that translates into growing visibility.

It is possible, however, to detect certain underground currents that connect their trajectories.

June Crespo and Teresa Solar Abboud, the two Spaniards who participated in the main exhibition of the last Venice Biennale, that of 2022, produce monumental pieces characterized by a vocation for hybridity—in materials, forms, themes—that touch in many aspects with the soft and ductile figures, of organic inspiration, of Eva Fàbregas, as well as with the essential gestural works of Julia Spínola.

There are also coincidences in an approach to art from research and process, understood as a result in itself, and in themes such as the review of a present past that is shared, for example, by Patricia Esquivias and Asunción Molinos Gordo.

Finally, there are coincidences that have to do with life circumstances: Teresa Solar Abboud has Egyptian roots and that identity transpires in her work, while Asunción Molinos Gordo has often turned her gaze to the North African country, where she had her second residence. even before the pandemic.

In the face of rivalry and competition, all these artists declare themselves friends and mutual references.

"I think I could consider myself part of a generation united around artistic and, above all, literary references, which have to do with American science fiction of the sixties, such as Philip K. Dick and Kurt Vonnegut, more than united around specific practices,” Solar Abboud responds to the possibility of invoking the idea of ​​a cohesive group, whether with these or other artists.

Not all of the interviewees maintain the same point of view: “In other moments in the history of art, the idea of ​​the generational was very binding because there was not much mobility,” says Molinos Gordo, who, like several other colleagues, distributes her time between Spain and abroad.

“But now I believe that we all have very different life experiences due to having lived in very different geographies.”

From the global to the local, June Crespo provides the opposite nuance: “Although I have exchanges with many of the artists you mention [those who appear in this report] and we coincide in exhibitions, the ones I have trained with and the ones I am closest to are artists.” from the Basque Country, colleagues like Lorea Alfaro, Elena Aitzkoa, Claudia Rebeca Lorenzo… Although we have small age differences, I think that [our affinity] is more a question of context than of generation.”

Based in Bilbao, Crespo inaugurated an ambitious exhibition at the Guggenheim this Friday.

For her, the celebration is double because she not only triumphs in a museum of global reach, but she also does it from her own home.

“I am very happy that local artists can work here,” she applauds, “and I see a lot of support from the team, people are excited.”

Contemporary art centers such as the CA2M in Móstoles have also been promoting both Madrid and national artists for some time: without going any further, the two exhibitions currently open are dedicated to Asunción Molinos Gordo and Teresa Solar Abboud, and, as if that were not enough, serendipity , at the entrance of the building a huge sculpture by Eva Fàbregas welcomes the visitor.

Before them, June Crespo (in 2023) already occupied those rooms with individual exhibitions;

Julia Spínola (2018) and Patricia Esquivias (2015);

and Claudia Pagès performed a performance in 2023. “Indeed, I believe that the Dos de Mayo Art Center is being key when it comes to locating and centering this generation of great artists,” Solar Abboud concedes.

“And I think that the work of museums throughout the country needs to continue focusing on this generation to give platforms to mid-careers and make them flourish.”

Spaces like the Artium in Vitoria are also pouring efforts in that direction: Julia Spínola (in 2023), Patricia Esquivias (2021) and June Crespo (2020) have recently passed through there.

Eva Fàbregas starred in one of the 2023 bets at the Botín Center in Santander;

the Macba in Barcelona celebrated Claudia Pagès in 2022;

Leonor Serrano Rivas exhibited at the Reina Sofía in Madrid in 2022 and Patricia Esquivias did the same in 2009. Given so much exhibition, in all the meanings of the word, the question would be: what does the platform of institutions contribute to the work of an artist ?

Leonor Serrano Rivas responds: in addition to providing a presumed dose of attention, a museum “allows you to work in a more ambitious way, showing a broader account of your work.”

It is a question of resources, scale and scope.

Also, as Eva Fàbregas points out, of “trust” gained: “I have never thought about it in commercial terms, but whenever I have been given an exhibition in a museum I have paid attention to the process that exists, with the curator, with the team, with management..., which is an accompaniment to the project, and a learning experience as well."

From left to right, the artists Claudia Pagès, Eva Fàbregas and Julia Spínola, in Barcelona on February 23.

Albert Garcia

Until reaching the heights of the great institutions, all of these artists have traveled—and continue to travel—the path of galleries and independent spaces, dotted with glittering events such as the Venice Biennale and Manifesta, in whose next edition Claudia Pagès will participate. , as well as trade fairs such as Arco, for which almost all of them carry work.

“I see that there is less precariousness, less doing small things every three months, but now the exhibitions last longer and you have more time to think about them well,” evaluates Pagès.

“I see myself in a system that has opened up, there is a certain systematization of something that allows me for some things to continue with others, and at the same time I work from a—how should I say?— lighter place.

I have a better time working,” adds Spínola.

They no longer suffer the uncertainties of the beginning, but they continue rowing strongly.

“Any opportunity they have given me I have stretched, I have made the most of it, and that is what has allowed me to continue working,” Serrano Rivas emphasizes.

“In exhibitions that could be considered minor I have poured all my energy, I have been as ambitious as I could be: that's how they call you for the next one.

Any work context is good, you don't have to wait for the Reina Sofía to arrive.”

The works of Serrano Rivas, Molinos Gordo and Pagès offer a sample of versatility: from

performance

to installation, from drawing to audiovisual, there is hardly any format that escapes their radars.

Other of these creators, on the contrary, work more focused (although not limited) in specific disciplines: sculpture, so often considered extinct, demonstrates its palpable vitality in the hands of Solar Abboud, Crespo, Spínola and Fàbregas.

Esquivias, who stands out for her videos full of subversive humor, emphasizes that, if there is something that links her to the other seven creators, it is an affectionate personal proximity: “I know them all,” she explains, “and some of them are very close friends. ”.

That cordiality and mutual recognition mark, in fact, the main connection that all of them underline.

Faced with the idea of ​​rivalry or competition, camaraderie.

“I don't call it a generation,” Fàbregas says.

“I call them, perhaps, my friends, my colleagues, the people I would like to go have a coffee with.”

Without being rookies or veterans, they claim the maturity that corresponds to their age and professional achievements.

With ages around 40, these creators fly over that transitional space between the emerging artist and the one definitively entered into the canon.

“Spain has a fabulous system of scholarships and aid, but it lasts until a certain age,” illustrates Serrano Rivas.

“I started working in 2012 and I have received almost all the scholarships, but when this whole system stops, it becomes very difficult to continue: you need private financing to develop the projects, and there are formats, such as performance

,

that almost have no place in the commercial world.

However, the popularity that museums provide helps them stay afloat in a “complicated” profession, in which instability always lurks on the horizon.

“Evidently they are communicating vessels, and having greater visibility in institutions implies greater visibility in the market,” agrees Solar Abboud.

“But the market is also very fickle and very capricious, and one thing does not necessarily imply the other.”

Without being newbies or veterans, these artists claim the maturity that corresponds to them both by age and by professional achievements.

“Here in Europe we have a conception of time closely linked to the idea of ​​progress: you start at A, and then you go to B and then to C, and in that linearity the word young extends almost until death,” reflects Molinos Gordo.

“There comes a time when you have more maturity not only in your calendar, but also in your professional practice, but I keep getting invitations to things with the profile of a young artist, and I would really like to get out of that.”

With years of experience behind them, they have accumulated the necessary background to evaluate, propose and complain.

“We are all in the art world: it is made up of many people, many agents, and each of these agents must promote national work,” Solar Abboud claims.

“We artists need the entire network of curators, managers… who are both inside and outside to speak well of us, to promote us, to take us out.

It is a constant work, and it is the only way we can move forward.”

With everything you have learned in this time, would you have any advice for the beginners who once were?

Solar Abboud offers one: “Let him know that nothing comes for free, which is something you also learn when you see other people's careers,” she considers.

“You really need to have a constant willingness to work, nothing is given.

But I would also tell young Teresa to have a great time, because the world of creation is very hard, but it is also incredible.

“It is a wonderful place to live.”

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