Susana Solano. Low Flight

Susana Solano’s artistic career took off in the 1980s, at a time when Josep Suñol was significantly expanding his collection. Josep Suñol had very close ties to local creators, and artists such as Susana Solano—who was about to burst onto the international scene—immediately caught his eye as he built up a collection following very firmly contemporary creation. Several of the Susana Solano pieces in the Josep Suñol Collection are on display in the exhibition and, together with other works, illustrate the aim behind the show, as well as Marta Llorente’s excellent text, which can be read below and gives a comprehensive vision of the stylistic and conceptual features of the artist’s work.

The Fundació Suñol usually gives over the first floor of its building to exhibitions offering an in-depth look at work by artists in its collection. On this occasion we have focused on the personal, universal language of Susana Solano, an artist who creates symbolic spaces out of abstract forms inspired by nature, her surroundings and memory. Using a wide range of materials, including iron, steel, wicker, aluminium, PVC, glass, cord and wire mesh, she leads us to observe these pieces and also take part. She draws on her own experience to raise questions about human beings and their relationship with their habitat.

A large part of Susana Solano’s output is made up of architectural forms found in nature—cavities, receptacles, basins, hills, etc—that explore edges, boundaries, spaces between the visible (the outside) and the invisible (the inside). In this context, the concept of the epidermis takes on its full meaning, since it occupies the space that separates the endogenous from the exogenous. The covering is a key part of these works since it acts as both a container and a showcase for a less visible but equally or even more significant nucleus—reason enough for the rich variety of materials she employs.

Low Flight alludes to the horizontal nature of the pieces laid out on display across the floor in the exhibition rooms. Horizontality is a recurring feature in many of Solano’s works—including most of the ones selected for this show—which lets the artist expand the field of view and lead the viewer’s gaze beyond its edges. The pieces practically merge with the ground, removing the gap between the earthly and the symbolic, as if their presence formed an essential part of the space.