LA CAJA exhibits a collective proposal by Baptiste Laurent (Nantes. France.1980). Paco Peña (Granada. Spain 1976) and Léo Faber (Metz, France, 1992). In close collaboration and six hands, they have made eight large paintings. In addition to bringing together several small ones in a large mosaic. The exhibition has been curated by Javier Guijarro Fayard and Annie Martinez-Pita Zemborain.

“Conversaciones y Puñetazos” is a commitment to painting in the form of a laboratory by three artists who share the Latolier studio (in the neighborhood of Usera in Madrid, in full artistic ferment in recent years). Founded by Baptiste Laurent, it has become a center of creation. Laurent has taken a liking to this format, having already exhibited another collaborative project at the Institut Français in Madrid in 2022, an action similar to a performance in which the relationship between the three artists generates dynamics that move the works forward and create new challenges.

There are well-known cases of collaborations in the history of art, such as the set of canvases painted by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente, at the behest of gallerist Bruno Bischofberger in the 1980s. Another more recent case is the performance by Miquel Barceló and choreographer Joseph Nadj modeling a large clay surface. Between 2000 and 2020 they repeated the intervention before an audience in such iconic centers as the Venice Biennale, the Beyeler Foundation, or the Casón del Buen Retiro.

If we go directly to the works of Laurent, Peña and Faber, we will see how they mix themes as diverse as a battlefield, Greek horses, the Goya-inspired palm wrestling, a swing on a colourful background, large butcher knives on blue Portuguese mosaics, a fish on a plate and two large arms emerging from the void, or a pink canopy in the middle of the field with a mysterious female nude floating in the sky, upside down.

Text by Annie Martinez-Pita Zemborain, curator.