Aleix Albareda - A PALE BLACK POSSIBILITY

Unique piece, with certificate of authenticity.

DARKNES·S - Acrylics on canvas, 112 × 112 cm
In this series, the tree becomes a motif of contemplation and, at the same time, an almost architectural presence. The four paintings explore different configurations of the landscape through a reduced range of whites, grays, and blacks, where the painterly material takes on essential prominence.
The square format of 112 × 112 cm creates a particular relationship between the tree figure and the space. The tree stops functioning solely as a natural element and becomes an autonomous, monumental body that occupies and tensions the painting surface. Its horizontal branches, its masses of foliage, and its trunks articulate the space as if they were structures drawn in the landscape.
The use of acrylic in black and white intensifies this reading. The absence of color does not imply a reduction, but a concentration of the gaze: light, shadow, texture, and gesture gain greater importance. The rapid, fragmented brushstrokes build the foliage without describing it literally. The tree thus appears between representation and abstraction, recognizable yet subjected to a process of synthesis and transformation.
There is also a marked gestural dimension. The brushstrokes, the transparencies, the accumulations of material, and the eroded areas of the surface reveal the process of constructing the image. The landscape seems less observed than reconstructed through memory, gesture, and the physical experience of painting.
In some works, the horizontality of the canopies contrasts with the verticality of the trunks; in others, the tree concentrates into a compact mass that seems to emerge directly from the earth. This variation allows each piece to function independently, but when viewed together, they form a visual narrative about permanence, time, and resilience.
The represented trees convey a sense of stillness, even though their surfaces are full of movement. Fragility and strength, silence and energy coexist in them. The landscape thus becomes an emotional space: more than representing a specific place, the works seem to speak of our relationship with nature and the need to pause the gaze before what endures.
The series finally offers a reflection on presence and trace. The tree remains rooted while everything else — light, climate, the viewer’s perception, and the painter’s gesture itself — seems to be in transformation. That tension between the permanent and the ephemeral constitutes one of the main poetic values of these paintings.

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