Galería Hilario Galguera Madrid is pleased to present Obertura, the most recent solo exhibition by artist Gabriel O’Shea (Metepec, Mexico, 1998). A haunting prelude to a future where the human and technological become irreversibly intertwined. All the paintings that make up this exhibition were created during the year 2024 and will be presented to the public for the first time, reflecting the artist’s commitment to build each exhibition as a unique whole, a narrative that does not admit repetitions.
In Obertura each piece is a portal, and each title an enigma. Codes such as “31065004”, a reference to the occipital lobe, suggest an unsettling redesign of humankind: in the pieces, circuits and metals pass through the skull, modifying the way we process reality. The titles, drawn from a vast compilation of medical terminology such as SNOMED CT*, encapsulate this unsettling reduction: the human body becomes a list of references, a catalog of possibilities for technological intervention. In this dialogue between flesh and machine, vision itself becomes a construction, a perception altered by the invasion of devices that rewrite our sensory experience.
The paintings, made in oil on wood and canvas, pay homage to traditional techniques, but their origin is in images created using artificial intelligence. This merging of the handmade and the digital strains the boundaries of art, raising questions about authorship, effort and transcendence. In some pieces, a translucent leather, inspired by the radical practices of designer Carol Christian Poell, surrounds the surfaces, distorting the view and disrupting the desire to fully grasp the details.
Gabriel O’Shea has used, for years, wax to rematerialize fragments of bodies, alluding– without anecdote or documentary derivations– to contextual violence. Perhaps these “disciplines” of the flesh are linked to his religious upbringing, which introduces a trace of enigmatic spirituality. The capital visions he presents at Galería Hilario Galguera Madrid do not share the dynamics of technological futurism, even if they have a singular cyber-gothic tone.
Obertura by Gabriel O’Shea “announces what is to come”; these paintings offer an unsettling and familiar reflection of who we are. When we look at them, what matters is what looks back at us. All these heads steal our gaze, yet the way in which the figures turn their backs on us is diametrically opposed to the profound promise of reconciliation that lingered in the figures of Friedrich’s wanderers, who sought meaning in a godless world, whether on a desolate beach or in the abysses of the mountains. The romantic fog has dissipated, and instead of a ruin from which to begin poeticizing what remains, we must survive in the midst of a defiled world.
Excerpt from the text
The Capital Visions of Gabriel O’Shea.
Fernando Castro Flórez.
Overture is not simply an exhibition; it is a visual essay on the fragility of humanity in a world increasingly governed by algorithms. It challenges us to consider what is left of what is human when our bodies are stripped of their autonomy and our perception is shaped by forces we barely understand. In this opening into the unknown, O’Shea does not promise us answers, but leaves us facing the unsettling reality that technology, like religion, could be both our salvation and our damnation.
About the artist
Gabriel O’Shea (Mexico, 1998) is a multidisciplinary artist who works in mediums such as sculpture, painting, photography, installation and video. His art is used as a tool that allows him to sow intimate questions in the viewer about a plurality of themes such as memory, technology, the human body, violence, decadence and spirituality (or lack thereof). His works are often presented segmented, partially shown, or veiled, implying disturbing latent narratives, emphasized by the realism and precision of his technique.
In recent years, his projects have developed a continuous narrative that questions the current path of humanity and what it destines for the future, creating a tension between the existential and the spiritual, between tranquility and chaos.
Gabriel studied at the Barcelona Academy of Art, in 2018. His solo exhibitions include Preludio, Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico (2023); Huespedes, G.O Studio, Metepec, Mexico (2020); and Museo Casa de la Mora, Toluca (2017). He has participated in group shows such as Index 5: estancias, Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico (2021); DOT Daynight, Mexico (2024); and Aquí y allá, Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico (2022).
About the gallery
Galería Hilario Galguera
Galería Hilario Galguera opened its doors in Mexico City in 2006 as a space for the discussion and promotion of contemporary Mexican and international art. Since then, it has exhibited and disseminated the work of artists recognized for their relevant and complex conceptual, social, political and formal proposals, as well as for their rigor and aesthetic precision.
Currently, Galería Hilario Galguera operates both in Mexico City and Madrid, representing artists such as: David Bailey, Willem Boel, Maxime Brigou, James hd Brown, Peter Buggenhout, Daniel Buren, Marie Cloquet, Stijn Cole, John Copeland, Maisie Cousins, Martin Eder, Israel González, Damien Hirst, Athina Ioannou, Enrique Ježik, Jannis Kounellis, Perla Krauze, Francisco Larios, Daniel Lezama, Oliver Marsden, Gabriel O’Shea, Roosmarijn Pallandt, Issa Salliander y Bosco Sodi.
Source: Galería Hilario Galguera
Publicaciones relacionadas
