Xavier Mascaró

His works transport us to distant realities through a primordial and universal aesthetic. Fascinated by the iconography of ancient culture, Mascarò uses archaic figures to express the contradictions within the human soul. In his work, there is the echo of Pre-Columbian art history. Characterized by an encounter between material, form, and the psychology of the artist, his art uses heads, masks, boats, human and animal figures as symbolic representations.

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Sculptures

Artist Biography

Xavier Mascaró

Mascaró, who has developed his career between Europe and North America, uses figures, be it a guardian, a warrior or a Hindu goddess, as a blank canvas to express the contradictions within the human soul: strength and fragility, the mask we wear every day versus the need to open up and to share, locality and globality.

Mascaró’s guardians

Last September, he had a solo show at the Saatchi Gallery receiving rave reviews. Alastair Smart, the arts editor and chief art critic of the Sunday Telegraph, described his sculptures as eerie, timeless and evocative. These works – you think – could date back centuries, even millennia. They command those old-fashioned artistic virtues: awe, solemnity, and respect. Mascaró has also participated in public art projects and heavily borrows elements of ancient cultures and the human body just as Moore did.

Meryl Rose, an art collector who sits on The Rose Art Museum Board of Advisors, says: Xavier Mascaro’s work is powerful and strong, yet it has a softness and serene beauty and elegance that is undeniable. It evokes ancient times, cultures and thought; and still, it is completely contemporary and relevant.

Kosme de Barañano, ex-museum director, a full-time professor and one of the most respected art critics in Spain today, adds: Mascaró follows the tradition of the history of Spanish art, from the realistic imagery of Gregorio Fernández to the Baroque painting of Valdés Leal. His language is figurative but it addresses the invisible, presenting pieces of bullfighting life (saddles, tack, horses, ropes) or everyday life (toys, crosses, reliquaries) which always imply the presence of a human being, or as Maurice Blanchot said, his passing, his absence. An absence that is tinged with a tragic feeling of life.

Lorenzo Belenguer. The Huffington Post

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014
Departure, The Saatchi Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Hispánica Contemporánea Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2013
Masks, Antonio Saura foundation, Cuenca, Spain

2012
Masks, Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A
Hispánica Contemporánea Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico

2011
Beck & Eggeling, Dortmund, Germany

2010
Eternal return, Valencian Institute of Modern Art, Valencia, Spain
Beck & Eggeling, Düsseldorf, Germany
Monumental sculpture, Paseo de Recoletos y Paseo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

2009
Monumental sculpture, Plaza Nueva, Seville, Spain
Monumental sculpture, Paseo del Parque y Plaza de la Marina, Malaga, Spain
Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A
Freites Gallery, Caracas, Venezuela

2008
Guardians, Palais Royal Gardens, Paris, France
Museum of Contemporary Art in Salta, Argentina
Recoleta cultural center, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mascaró in Silos, Reina Sofía Art center, Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos, Spain

2007
Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM, U.S.A
Sala Robayera, Miengo, Spain
Cadaqués Dos Gallery, Cadaques, Spain

2006
Joan Guaita Gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Barjola museum, Gijon, Spain
Encounter, N2 Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Recent work, Arte Nueve Gallery, Murcia, Spain

2005
Recent work, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, U.S.A

2004
Mascaró, Spanish sculpture of the 20th century Palais Harrach, Kunsthistorische Museum, Vienna, Austria
Iron sculptures / sketches on paper, Convent of Santo Domingo, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

2003
Marlborough Convent of Santo Domingo, Madrid, Spain
Arte Nueve gallery, Murcia, Spain

2002
Marlborough Chelsea, New York, U.S.A
Marlborough gallery, Madrid, Spain

2001
Marlborough gallery, Madrid, Spain
Joan Guaita gallery, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Colón XVI gallery, Bilbao, Spain

1999
Sen gallery, Madrid, Spain