Carla Cascales “Closer than they appear”

Artist Carla Cascales inaugurates “Closer than they appear”, a double parallel exhibition in WE COLLECT Madrid and London. She will exhibit a selection of her latest works, that dwell upon the seven main universal arguments of narrative.

She held her first solo exhibition in 2018 at WE COLLECT Madrid and since then her career has taken a 360º turn. Her work is already part of some of the most important Spanish art collections, it is represented in the USA by the Tappan Gallery in L.A. and she was selected by the AD magazine as one of the youngest talents to be considered. In the last year, Carla Cascales (Barcelona, 1989) has shown her work in institutions such as Matadero or ImagineBank of the Fundació La Caixa; She completed a nine-meter floating installation in New York’s Soho and has participated in the Numeroventi residence in Florence, as well as being a finalist for the ArtsFAD awards at the Museum of Design in Barcelona.

In her new project, “Closer than they appear”, Carla Cascales interprets the seven main universal arguments of the narrative. “I was deeply moved when I discovered that various experts have investigated all kinds of stories and have been able to establish that dramatic situations are constantly repeated in all cultures and times. As humans, we have always told each other the same stories, with different characters and scenarios but keeping the same essence, from the beginning of time until now, ” the artist says.

With a marked minimalist character, the work of Carla Cascales, made with noble materials as wood, stone, glass, metal… goes from the most essential geometric shapes and reaches the point of balance with the irregularities of each material. Her work is a journey to the essence of forms, free of all ornament and with the minimum possible elements. A poetic balance that connects emotionally with the viewer as the stories on which she bases her new work.

The title of the exhibition “Closer than they appear” is a nod to the warning that is usually seen in the rear-view mirrors of the vehicles of some Anglo-Saxon countries (Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear). “Although it may not seem like we are all much closer than we think, we connect emotionally with the same stories, regardless of our origin, culture or age. I like to tell stories through volumes, space, sculpture”.

Carla Cascales Alimbau (Barcelona, 1989)

She has a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the Pompeu Fabra University and a Master’s Degree in Design from the Elisava High School, both in Barcelona. Her beginnings were as a designer, time in which she worked for major international brands such as Nike, Oysho, Uniqlo, Louis Vuitton, Mini or Massimo Dutti, among others.
 Before making her first solo exhibition at WE COLLECT Madrid, her work was part of collective works such as “Erotic Stories”, at Mirat&Co. Gallery (Madrid, 2017); Miquel Alzueta Gallery (Barcelona, 2017); “White Wall”, in Espacio 88 (Barcelona, 2017). 
After her first solo, she is also represented in the USA by the Tappan Collective Gallery in Los Angeles and made a nine meter long floating installation in New York’s Soho.
 She has also been a finalist in the ArtsFAD art awards, organized by the Barcelona Design Museum and made an ephemeral sculpture for the new ImagineBank building of the La Caixa Foundation in Barcelona. 
After her double exhibition in Madrid and London with WE COLLECT, her work will be seen in September at the Direktorenhaus Museum in Berlin and at the end of the year she will travel to Los Angeles for her first solo exhibition in the United States. 
She has made art residencies in various places in the world, such as Varda Artist Residency in San Francisco (2017) or Numeroventi in Florence (2018) and has been selected to make her next residence in Tokyo, in Almost Perfect Japan. 
Thanks to her evolution from design to art, she has participated as a speaker at numerous congresses and festivals such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv, the Art Center Conde Duque in Madrid, the OFFF festival in Milan, Matadero Madrid, the Design Museum of Barcelona or the Club de Creativos (Kursaal) San Sebastián.