Manuel Pinazo (1956) - Homenaje a J. Albers

Oil painting with mixed media on 1 cm thick wood
Created between 2025/26
Signed and titled on the back
Sent with the artist's certificate
Title: Homage to Albers
Measures 40 x 33.5 cm.

GEOMETRY AND COLOR IN SPACE
THE EXPANDED GEOMETRY
By Pedro Alberto Cruz

The abstract language in which Manuel Pinazo Rodríguez's entire body of work unfolds is a direct consequence of the reworking that geometric rigor experienced during postmodernity, as well as of the expansion that painting is carrying out beyond its traditional limits. The first distinctive element of his painting is the introduction of error, of “imperfection” in translating certain geometric schemes with a long tradition since the vanguards. Pinazo's work repeats compositional models based on parallel vertical or horizontal bands of different colors, checkerboards, or the repetition of geometric shapes such as the rectangle. When one looks closely at each of these compositions, one notices how the cold rationalism on which geometric abstraction is founded has been subverted by the insertion of irregularities: lines that are slightly inclined and therefore not completely straight; different spacing between the various color bands; verticals that are interrupted and break the rhythm of the work; or, evidently, the cheerful color — echoing Matisse — and at times with an air of naivety, which undermines the metaphysical authority that drips from much of Vanguard geometric abstraction.
But Pinazo's deconstruction of abstract geometry does not stop at this first level of critique. There is, in addition, a “second level,” which the artist has been consolidating over the years and which yields interesting conclusions. First, and in a line of work that continues the post-pictorial abstraction of the 1980s, the artist plays with the sculptural potential of painting by bringing together several pieces that dynamize the traditional idea of contour/frame as a square or rectangle.

Manuel Pinazo, 1956 Valencia
• Artes y Oficios. Escuela de Eduardo Merello (A.H.V.) affiliated with the Escuela de Artes y Oficios of Valencia (5 years)
• Mastery in artistic iron forging

Shared studio workshop with artists Víctor Blasco and Carlos Romero in Valencia, 1990

EXHIBITIONS AND WORKS

• 1991.- Painting and sculpture exhibition, City Hall of Burjassot, opening of the hall.
• 1992.- Sculpture exhibition at the Gravina Palace in Alicante, alongside J. G. H. titled “Light and Form in Iron”
• 1992.- Exhibition at PG ART room in Gandía
• 1992.- Exhibition and purchase by the City Council of la Font d’En Carros of a series of 25 iron sculptures
• 1993.- Painting exhibition with J.G.H. at the María Caballero Gallery in Castellón
• 1993.- Exhibition at the Luisa Torres Gallery of Valencia
• 1993.- INTERARTE Fair of Valencia with Luisa Torres Gallery
• 1993.- Exhibition at the Villanueva Gallery of Madrid
• 1994.- Exhibition at the Cartel Gallery of Granada
• 1994.- Exhibition at the Vértice Gallery of Sagunto
• 1994.- Exhibition at the Tretze Gallery of Castellón
• 1994.- INTERARTE Fair of Valencia with Luisa Torres Gallery
• 1995.- Exhibition at the Seiquer Gallery of Madrid
• 1995.- Exhibition at Manolo Cruzado of Castellón
• 1995.- Exhibition at Diagonal Art in Barcelona
• 1995.- INTERARTE Fair of Valencia with Luisa Torres Gallery
• 1995.- Exhibition at IBERICO 2MIL in Barcelona
• 1996.- PLURAL ART Luisa Torres Gallery in Torre-Pacheco, Murcia
• 1996.- Exhibition at Rosalía Sender Bookstore in Valencia
• 1996.- Exhibition at Vértice Gallery in Sagunto
• 1996.- Group show at the Arsenals of Barcelona
• 1996.- INTERARTE Fair of Valencia with Vértice Gallery
• 1997.- Exhibition at Der Reiter Gallery of Valencia
• 1997.- Exhibition at Seiquer Gallery of Madrid
• 1998.- Exhibition at Crapanzano Art of Milan
• 1998.- Exhibition at PG ART of Gandía
• 1998.- Exhibition at Vértice Gallery of Sagunto
• 1999.- INTERARTE Fair of Valencia, Vértice Gallery
• 1999.- Collaboration with Cartel Gallery of Granada
• 2015.- Exhibition with the Hispano-Russian Foundation - Vía Vitalis in Moscow
• 2020.- Contemporary Art Fair in Marbella with OCCO ART Gallery
• Saatchi Gallery London works displayed online
• 2021.- Exhibition at Novella Art Gallery, Sagunto
• 2021,- Online exhibition at 1819 Art Gallery (virtual)
• 2022.- Exhibition at Sagunto Civic Center