Image: EVOKE Contemporary, Santa Fe
Francisco Mayor Maestre will present his first solo exhibition in Santa Fe and the United States at Evoke Contemporary, with an opening reception scheduled for August 28 from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibition, titled ‘Las cosas simples las devora el tiempo’ (‘Simple things are devoured by time’), brings together paintings made with oil, crayons, graphite, collage and spray paint on panel.
The exhibition focuses on the overlooked energy of modern urban environments. According to the gallery’s announcement, Maestre’s works look beyond the rigid lines of urban planning and the repeated surfaces of windows and façades to find what it describes as a hidden, rebellious life within the city. His compositions combine precise architectural structures with spontaneous marks and bursts of colour, treating the everyday environment as a site of possibility.
The announcement also frames the paintings around the “accidental beauty” of ordinary existence. Layered collage, spray paint and drawn or painted interventions transform built spaces into more open-ended landscapes, where the order of the city is interrupted by signs of human invention. The works are described as balancing urban rigidity with the warmth and unpredictability of lived experience.
Maestre’s background is connected to the outskirts and changing landscape of Madrid. His artist page states that his childhood and adolescence in Rivas-Vaciamadrid were shaped by daily journeys into the capital, during which he observed transformations in the landscape and the margins of the city. That experience provides the documented biographical context for his attention to urban structure, peripheral spaces and the visual details of everyday movement.
Among the works previewed for the exhibition is ‘The balaclava is for cold and trade unionism’, an oil, crayon, graphite, collage and spray-paint work on panel measuring 47.25 by 35.5 inches. The gallery also lists ‘In Spain we say, ay, me desangro, llama a alguien, que me muero’ (‘Help, I am bleeding to death, send an ambulance.’), measuring 47.25 by 63 inches, along with ‘South Border’, ‘It could be worse’ and ‘Parties in Fine Parlors’. The latter three works are listed at either 63 by 47.25 inches or 47.25 by 35.5 inches.
The opening reception will take place at Evoke Contemporary, 550 South Guadalupe Street in Santa Fe. The announcement identifies the presentation as Maestre’s first solo exhibition in both the city and the United States, and gives August 28 as the exhibition’s opening date.
