The Museum of the University of Alicante (MUA) is set to unveil the exhibition Dionisio Gázquez: 50 years of artistic creation on 12 November. This showcase will be open until 31 January 2027 and will feature a comprehensive overview of the artist's five-decade career, during which he has developed a unique language of abstraction.
The exhibition allows visitors to explore Gázquez's artistic evolution through various series and creative phases, reflecting his ongoing inquiries into light, matter, space, and gesture. Enric Mira, a professor in the Department of Communication and Social Psychology and the exhibition's curator, notes that Gázquez's career does not follow a linear progression; rather, it is characterised by overlapping series that “intersect, pause, and re-emerge decades later with new perspectives.”
The exhibition begins with early works from 1973 to 1976, showcasing spontaneous brushstrokes that reveal an abstraction emerging even before the final painting is conceived. Drawings from the 1970s and 1980s highlight the structural foundations of many ideas Gázquez would later develop. This initial period also includes photographs from the series Abstracciones en el muro, where textures from decaying walls and spaces become pictorial material.
Another significant series, Energy, initiated in the mid-1970s and revisited in the 2000s, exemplifies Gázquez's creative process of revisiting previous works to explore them from new angles. The 1980s mark a transformative period for the artist; in the Cromatismos series, colour and composition take centre stage during a time of creative freedom and a return to painting. Subsequently, his palette darkens, leading to new explorations in Presencias, where forms emerge from shadows, and Verticalidad, which expresses an upward aspiration towards light and the sublime. The series Dualidades contrasts textured planes in tension, while Vital impetus showcases passionate gestural compositions akin to action painting.
Gázquez's mature phase is represented by large-scale works from the Bosque interior series, created between the late 1980s and the 1990s. These pieces encapsulate Gázquez's most personal style, featuring dense brushstrokes that evoke landscapes while constructing an intimate space. The titles of these works are particularly significant, as they serve “almost like verses, guiding the viewer's gaze without closing their meaning,” according to Mira.
The exhibition also includes Ámbitos, created between 1991 and 1993, which translates painting into space through an installation where painted emblems are reflected and suspended in the gallery. Additionally, sculptures from 1994 propose spatial structures with musical evocations. In the 2000s, Gázquez's lyrical impulse gives way to a more formal restraint. The Dripping / Texturaciones series incorporates grids and linear rhythms of colour that pay homage to influences such as Mies van der Rohe, Mondrian, Rietveld, and Sempere.
Another notable collection is Espacios de luz, spanning from 1973 to 2025, which reflects a prolonged investigation into architectural space. Cuts and tears in the pictorial surface allow glimpses of colour that seem to vibrate from within the canvas. Mira encourages viewers to observe these pieces from various positions, particularly through lateral movement, as they change with the viewer's perspective.
The exhibition concludes with a series titled El tiempo pasa, featuring small self-portraits created between 1968 and 2026 that accompany Gázquez throughout his life. Overall, the exhibition offers an insightful look into an artistic journey marked by experimentation and a continual reassessment of the boundaries of abstraction. As Mira summarises, Gázquez's work represents “an unrelenting investigation into the limits of abstraction, between the material and the poetic.”
