This March, Spanish artist and sculptor, Jorge Palacios, is proud to present Sketch in the Air, an outdoor sculpture installation, organized in collaboration with Fridman Gallery on view in front of the Trump Soho. Coincidentally, Steven Harris Architects and Rees Roberts + Partners will present, Convergences, a solo exhibition showcasing some of his latest works, that have never before exhibited in New York City. Both exhibitions will be on view from March 3 – May 1, 2015.

Made of teak wood and corten steel, Sketch in the Air, serves to enrich the dialogue between art and architecture. The installation is integrated into an environment dominated by skyscrapers made of glass and steel. Palacios specifically chose the site in front of the Trump Soho to display the sculpture. He describes, “I firmly believe my work has to start a dialogue with its environment; in fact, for me it is fundamental that the sculptures have a sense, a fundament, a reason to be in a particular place and not another. I expect the pieces neither to disrupt nor to turn into huge totems imposing their presence, on the contrary, that they will function as elements interacting with others in space, like the landscape and architecture.”

The solo exhibition titled Convergences, is the result of a collaboration with the celebrated New York architects Steven Harris + Rees Roberts. The exhibition and will feature more than 12 works, including 6 sculptures and 7 photographs by the artist.

Palacios’ work explores abstract forms to test the limits of material, line and restrained expression. A balance is established between the sculpted material and sculpted air, as the works explore the dichotomy between soundness and lightness. The shapes reveal a permanent tension between line and curve. The title of the exhibition is a reference to the different convergences between lines and planes, which reveal to us the path taken by the artist through the realms of geometric and organic abstraction.

Drop, 2011, is one of the most representative pieces in this in this show, a sculpture in which the materialization of liquid element out of solid wood suggests the conceptual development behind the works that Palacios creates with respect to the curved form. Blood Cell, 2015 has never before presented to the public. The sculpture made of hard maple reflects Palacios current work and formal language. The artist plays with the concept of fluidity; the tension of the curve, and how a sculpture made of wood and slate can gain an element of lightness, an aerial element.

Other works, including Affable geometry, 2015, Origin of the fish rays, 2014, and Vertical tendency, 2014, focus on the sensuality of the curve and present is latest body of work. Furthermore, Untitled, 2000, is travelling to New York for the first time. This work is considered Palacios first major work in his artistic career and will also be available for purchase at the exhibition.

Palacios’ work has attracted the interest of legendary names in architecture, including Peter Marino, Hernández de la Garza from Mexico, and Eric Owen Moss from California. Over the last 10 years, Palacios has brought his sculptural works to public spaces to many international cities all over world. Following in the footsteps of masters, such as Eduardo Chillida or, more recently, Jaume Plensa, Jorge Palacios has joined the list of representatives of Spanish art on a global stage.

Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, the architecture critic and curator, writes “closer to Barbara Hepworth's, Noguchi's or Henry Moore's line than to that of any other modern master, Palacios seeks for the wood to speak to him, he challenges it.” The sculptures are “irreducible and essential, but also contained, geometrically complex, singular. It is that concise form that confers specificity, character, and humanity. It is not the sum of parts, but the reduction of an idea until it lacks parts, condensed, a single piece. Jorge Palacios’ sculpture is of eloquent gesture. In the singular: one only gesture per piece.”

Jorge Palacios

Born in Madrid in 1979, Jorge Palacios has explored the realms of science and nature to discover pure and essential geometric masses and forms, in many cases molecular. He finds inspiration in these shapes to reach maximum expressiveness through minimal expression.

In spite of his youth, Jorge Palacios has exhibited alongside internationally recognized artists, such as Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Sol Lewitt, Olafur Eliasson, Jean Tinguely, Ernesto Neto, Michelangelo Pistoletto, and John Baldessari.

His sculptures have been exhibited globally in Canada, Switzerland, and the US and are featured in both private and public collections. He has participated in major international art fairs in the U.S, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and other countries and has participated in international projects for numerous cities, including in Toronto, Seoul, Chaco, Panama City, New Orleans, etc.).

Palacios’ track record as a creator of site - specific projects reveals his keen interest in establishing a dialogue between his sculptures and their surroundings and the importance of this dialogue for his particular conception of art. To undertake or materialize these types of projects, Palacios has teamed up with major architecture and landscape design firms. www.jorgepalacios.us