Maruja Mallo. Mask and compass

Maruja Mallo stands as the preeminent representative of a group of artists who, for the first time, projected a worldview that was both uniquely feminine and rooted in the perspective of the modern, professional, and independent woman. A visionary artist, Mallo captured the concerns of her era while anticipating many contemporary preoccupations.

This retrospective exhibition is organized chronologically, using her painting series as its primary framework. These works—presented alongside her drawings and personal archive—map her career trajectory, tracing her evolution from early magical realism and surrealist compositions to the geometric and fantastical configurations of her later period.

Mallo's diverse and personal body of work blurs the distinctions between the popular and the avant-garde, as well as between aesthetics and politics. Rather than rural nostalgia or localized views, she approached the "popular" as a contemporary, urban space for hybridization and reconciliation.

During her exile in Argentina following the Spanish Civil War, her work reflected a deep fascination with the beauty and diversity of her new surroundings.

Her work explores the human figure through monumentalized faces, utilizing masks and shadows as symbolic alter egos.