Galería Miguel Marcos presents, under the title “Abstraction”, four international artists living and wor- king between Europe and China: Xavier Grau, Lin Mo, Cristóbal Ortega and Manuel Valencia; a cultural mix between East and West, which involves a re ection on the absolute and the neutral, transcending the territorial and cultural border. An apparently accidental encounter, but in fact tangible, through the unpredictable form and the vehement trace. A silent dialogue in search of inner peace, and at the same time, the adventure of the feeling of color.

“The super cial presence is not the whole; all things rise, become great and then return to its root. The path of non-being leads to stillness and observation, and leads from the manifold to unity.” The re ection of the Taoist philosophy, de nes the concept of abstraction with fullness and precision.

The works selected for this exhibition take us beyond the realism of representation to capture concrete wills. Each of the four artists embraces different techniques and disciplines, which achieve works of different experimental conditions, regardless of styles or possible narratives:

Xavier Grau (Barcelona, 1951) was, during the seventies one of the strengths of the Spanish plastic debate. Grau’s painting is diverted to an abstraction that maintains the internal tension between color and drawing, without reducing its chromatic vivacity or the movement of its surfaces, which are contained by the rhythm of the forms that articulate its internal structure.

The paintings of Lin Mo (Harbin, China, 1962) present neural landscapes with calligraphic pulse in perfect harmony with those of the earth. In his works, you can feel the inner breath of life. Figures are scattered, nely divided and misty, from which the inner soul stands out, sometimes of fear, sometimes of surprise, and others of sweet desire but nally all is converged on canvas by a tacit power—where exactly lies in the esoteric Chinese art “shape scattered but essence united”.

The work of Cristóbal Ortega (Málaga, 1970) is characterized by the representation of successions of pictorial notes of various timbres and forms, harmonized within a particular score. Its unique picto- rial conception gives rise to works in which, the masses of oil abound in the reverse. A technique that originates from the sweating, that is to say, the sweat of the oil through the thin layers of linen. Colors intermingle and interact generating synergies and movements.

The landscapes of Manuel Valencia (Madrid, 1954) suggest a re ection through the delicate and ener- getic feature of fascinating lines. Its traces, as a particular seal, and the way they intersect and interact, generate a synergy and movement that re ect the duality of chaos and the order of the cosmos. His landscapes are isolated and silent, in clear allusion to the fragility of nature, and to the human bonds with itself.