7 October 2025 | Madrid
There are artists whose work captures the pulse of the present — translating noise into form, and form into feeling. At the recent presentation of Juanjo Maíllo at Hotel Bless Madrid, that presence was unmistakable.
The Language of Marks
Maíllo’s paintings unfold as fragments — graphic lines, bruised gestures, stains that feel like the residue of thought.
In person, they move between drawing and painting, gesture and structure, emotion and restraint.
Born in Madrid in 1985 and trained at the Universidad Complutense, Maíllo belongs to a generation redefining Spanish painting. His work merges the rhythm of digital culture with the physical immediacy of paint. What circulates online — as he says — inevitably filters into the work.
The burgundy canvases carried a dense, physical energy — their gestures raw, mapped, and magnetic.
Two Temperatures
The presentation revealed a striking duality.
The burgundy-toned works felt strong — fuerte — filled with motion and gravity. They carried the pulse of the hand, recalling anatomy, coded language, and the pressure of gesture.
In contrast, the violet pieces opened into calm. Broad floral forms emerged through soft washes, serene and expansive. Where the darker tones demanded attention, these exhaled — lighter, meditative, quietly luminous.
Together they created rhythm: intensity and pause, tension and release. The balance between them became part of the exhibition’s quiet strength.
Violet hues shifted the tone — tranquil, reflective, still anchored in movement.
A Contemporary Pulse
Maíllo’s language is rooted in the gesture of painting yet deeply aware of contemporary life — the constant flow of image, data, and memory.
His canvases act as both filter and mirror: what remains after the noise settles.
That friction — between the digital and the handmade — gives his work its urgency. Each piece feels like a record of absorption and release, thought turning into texture.
Painting as translation: absorbing, filtering, releasing.
Discover More
Artist: Juanjo Maíllo
Studio: @maillostudio
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