Maurizio Valch

I paint, then I wound my paintings. This intervention runs through all my series, sometimes visibly, sometimes almost imperceptibly. There is something sculptural about this way of working: I not only add material, but also remove it, displace it, and uncover what remains beneath. With a palette knife, I make incisions through layers of acrylic and oil paint, leaving physical grooves across the surface. Their irregularities, interruptions, and proximity create a vibration throughout the painting. These marks suggest a relationship with memory and, at times, trauma: what has happened persists as a trace, even when new layers seem to conceal it. My paintings develop as abstract territories where surfaces retain the history of their construction. Scraping reveals earlier layers, buried fragments, and gestures that appeared to have disappeared. Monoliths and architectural forms emerge within these territories, sometimes suggesting ideas, ideologies, and deeply rooted beliefs. Their apparent solidity encounters sloping horizons, fractures, and the instability of the surrounding space. Fragmentation runs through my artistic practice in different ways. In STRATA, it appears through incisions, monoliths, and shifting territories. In VORTEX, it relates to the emotional and psychological movements of individuals and societies. In FACIES, an ongoing series, it explores the multiple facets of identity. In MARE SOMNIORUM, Mediterranean experience moves toward dreams and surrealist landscapes. I do not paint to illustrate a previously formulated theory. The painting itself can reveal relationships I had not anticipated. Interpretation often comes afterward, as part of an ongoing dialogue between material, aesthetic decisions, and thought. Over time, I have found words for something that was already happening in my work: “We do not seek to explain that multiplicity. We seek to give it pictorial existence.” My independent painting practice began in 2001. Born in Argentina, with Italian and Spanish citizenship, I have lived and worked in the United States, Italy, Spain, and Argentina. My artistic trajectory includes exhibitions at the Reial Cercle Artístic in Barcelona (2017–2019), an exhibition associated with L’Elisir d’Amore at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (2017), and a chalk performance at MACBA in April 2019, connected to the VORTEX series. I have also maintained an independent exhibition practice through private studios and artistic presentations in Córdoba, Valencia, Seville, León, Barcelona, and Miami. Alongside painting, I have published books of poetry and write essays on consciousness, freedom, and human experience.