ART CITIES:Copenhagen-Violeta Maya
Violeta Maya’s paintings act as a direct channel for her immediate emotions and personal memories. Her creative process merges artistic intent with material behavior, subjecting wet canvas and raw pigments to unpredictable forces like humidity and natural drying times. Consequently, each artwork becomes a conscious balance between intentional image-making and the arbitrary, chance outcomes dictated by her physical environment.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: NILS STÆRK Gallery Archive
In his surrealist masterpiece “Codex Seraphinianus”, Italian artist Luigi Serafini constructed a fantastical realm where flora, fauna, and anatomy existed in perpetual metamorphosis, stubbornly resisting fixed taxonomy. It is within this conceptually fluid domain—where matter constantly transforms rather than adhering to rigid definitions—that Madrid-born artist Violeta Maya situates “Absoluto Estado de Proliferación” (Absolute State of Proliferation), her solo exhibition in Copenhagen at Nils Stærk. Rather than treating nature as a static landscape to capture, Maya approaches it as an active, unyielding engine of creation. Across sweeping multi-panel canvases, swollen sculptural forms, and immersive soundscapes, the exhibition unfolds as an ecosystem in a state of continuous, unstoppable emergence.
Central to Maya’s practice is her wet-on-wet technique executed directly on unprimed canvas. By saturating raw fabric with water and introducing diluted pigments, she purposefully surrenders absolute control to atmospheric humidity, gravity, and the natural absorbency of the fibers. Pigments bleed, pool, and wander beyond the initial path of the brush, giving rise to forms that exist between calculated intention and organic chance. The resulting visual language hovers delicately in a liminal zone: cavities, membranes, and fluid stems recall embryonic cells, seed pods, or internal organs, yet they remain delightfully ambiguous, refusing to resolve into any single recognizable classification. Because this technique demands that the artist work while the surface remains wet, each painting functions as a temporal record of its own physical birth.
To further emphasize life as an interconnected continuity rather than a set of isolated entities, Maya pushes her imagery past the boundaries of the traditional rectangular frame. In large multi-panel works like “Absoluto estado de proliferación gamético germinal”, branching structures spread across canvas breaks like creeping roots or vascular networks, carrying pools of embryonic color beyond the edge of a single panel. Drawing additional structural inspiration from Japanese folding screen traditions, she introduces spatial permeability, allowing paintings to interact directly with the architectural space around them.
This spatial interaction culminates in a series of sculptural works where painting literally acquires a physical body, rising from the gallery floor with rounded, swollen contours that evoke bellies, seed pods, and protective membranes. These forms transform the belly into a portal of latent vitality, suggesting continuous incubation and unexpressed potential. Meanwhile, the inclusion of a running water fountain titled “El agua corriente no se corrompe (流水不腐)” infuses the gallery with gentle movement and continuous ambient sound. Water recurs here not merely as a subject, but as an essential generative engine. Its uninterrupted flow ensures the space resists all static stillness, capturing a universe where life is always beginning anew.
Photo: Violeta Maya, Pequeños resultados de un gran tema II, 2026, Cotton canvas, padding, feathers, semi-precious stones, glass beads, 25 x 29 x 26 cm, 9.84 x 11.42 x 10.24 in, © Violeta Maya, Courtesy the artist and NILS STÆRK Gallery
Info: NILS STÆRK Gallery, Holbergsgade 19, Copenhagen, Denmark, Duration: 21/8-10/0/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 12:00-17:00, Sat 11:00-15:00, https://website-artlogicwebsite2315.artlogic.net/
