Santiago Giralda

‘Maps Of The Invisible.’

Galerie ISA is thrilled to welcome back artist Santiago Giralda (b.1980, Madrid, Spain) with a solo exhibition titled, ‘Maps Of The Invisible.’

Giralda is known for his highly detailed canvases that draw from art history as well as classic landscapes, layering traditions with new technologies for the highly digitalized, highly visual world we live in. In previous works, Giralda questioned the space nature holds in an increasingly urban world through an exploration (and excavation!) of landscapes to confront memories and the passage of time. ‘Maps Of The Invisible’ goes a step further, a layer deeper, reconfiguring our perception of familiar environments.

Giralda invites us on a journey to reveal the natural beauty of an eclectic world. In some instances, images seem fragmented and deconstructed, in others, they appear settled, as if they have found their order. This showcase is framed within the dual and often contradictory ways we perceive our environment, and by extension, the landscapes of our surroundings. The use of digital technologies in his creative process reinforces this idea of duality. Giralda begins his process with photographs and transforms them through editing software, creating landscapes that are both real and impossible.

Giralda’s references range from different painting traditions to the current digital landscape, experimenting with imagery, including video games. In the digital environment, we approach information through folders, screens, sub-screens, icons, and levels, much like in video games. Conversely, we experience a landscape in situ. Landscapes are then positioned between nature and abstraction, creating a layered experience and Giralda invites us to journey through fragmented scenes that evoke the tangible, the digital, and the dreamlike, existing in a constant visual tension.

From landscapes of distant mountains, mysterious forests in the darkness of night, lush jungles where flowers and plants come alive, to planets observing us, amongst waterfalls and slopes, these works, much like dreams, do not follow a linear narrative; instead, they flow through a stream of emotions, memories, and sensations that emerge and fade into the visual horizon. Each painting is a doorway into a universe where natural elements, such as mountains, glaciers, or jungles blur into a play of colours and forms that challenge visual expectations. These landscapes, often deconstructed, pose questions about our perception of the environment and invite us to reconsider the boundary between the natural and the artificial, between sensory experiences and those mediated and mandated by screens.

Giralda employs his characteristic approach, blending the abstract and the figurative, to immerse the viewer in a universe of multiple simultaneous perspectives. Through digital collages and meticulously applied brushstrokes, his landscapes evoke the majesty of nature and the artificiality of the constructed. This process not only reveals the beauty of what is represented but also underscores the illusory nature of the image, reminding us that what we observe is merely a fragmented representation of reality.

The viewer, as a result, is taken on a mind-altering quest through spaces that challenge the boundaries between the physical and the digital, the phantasmagorical and the tangible, the real and the abstract. Giralda seeks to convey a message of emotion, knowledge and tradition, drawing inspiration from his immediate visual surroundings, regardless of their origin and emphasizing that the power of an idea can often be found in the most unexpected places.

Giralda’s paintings are not meant to be explained but experienced, transporting us to the subconscious with maps of inner states that manifest visually. These are landscapes where the viewer perceives the presence of time, painting, and matter; through all this, the viewer becomes present in the artwork itself. This showcase is then not just a journey through physical spaces but also an inward reflection.

With this exhibit, Giralda not only revisits the significant themes of landscapes in the history of art (his landscapes are refuges, and more than specific locations, they offer the viewer an opportunity to experience and position themselves in the liminal space between the real and the imaginary) but he also mediates the future of painting in an increasingly digitized world. Through his works, the viewer is invited to navigate an experience in which slow contemplation becomes an act of resistance against the lightning speed of contemporary media imagery.

“Maps Of The Invisible” offers an immersive experience that prompts us to question our relationship with nature, technology, and, ultimately, with ourselves. Each painting serves as a window into a new world that, although distant and abstract, maintains an intimate connection with our everyday reality. The artist emphasizes his disinterest in representing a single, homogeneous world, embracing the eclecticism of the world as his territory and placing his work firmly in this diversity. For Giralda, painting is a cultural construct that welcomes different ways of positioning oneself and understanding the world

Through each work, Giralda challenges us to take a moment to contemplate and explore our relationship with the real and the virtual. And the ultimate goal of Giralda’s work—to seek order in chaos, silence in noise, and time before immediacy.

Priyanka R. Khanna