Aleix Albareda - A COMMON GROUND FOR ONE AND ALL

Unique piece, with a certificate of authenticity.

DARKNES·S - Acrylics on canvas, 112 × 112 cm
In this series, the tree becomes a motif for 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 painting matter takes on a central protagonism.
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 pictorial surface. Its horizontal branches, its masses of foliage, and its trunks articulate space as if they were structures drawn into the landscape.
The use of black-and-white acrylic 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 quick and fragmented brushstrokes construct 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, transparencies, accumulations of material, and eroded zones of the surface make visible the process of building 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, 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 within them. The landscape thus becomes an emotional space: more than depicting a specific place, the works seem to speak about our relationship with nature and the need to pause the gaze before what persists.
The series ultimately offers a reflection on presence and imprint. The tree remains rooted while everything else — the light, the climate, the viewer’s perception, and the very pictorial gesture — seems to be in transformation. This tension between the permanent and the ephemeral constitutes one of the main poetic values of these paintings.
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