Artists

CATALINA LEÓN

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León’s installations, objects, and paintings invite a connection with the transcendent. With works that delve into the fields of astrology, psychology, religion, and ritual, she investigates how images and symbols accompany human processes.

In León’s art, paintings advance in all directions and envelop disparate supports like sheetrock, wood, and fabric—almost always uneven and fragmented surfaces. Sometimes, her paintings mingle with soil, plants, or other organic matter. Other times, they are exposed to the elements, to life in the presence of the artist who made them, to being walked on by viewers, or—simply—the passage of time. Indeed, the passage of time is key to all her art, since it operates like a compass, orienting us through alternative temporalities and situations that attempt to form part of and reflect life. That means León’s work is always in process. It is just that sometimes it comes to a halt to be displayed in public.

In her paintings, the artist quotes fragments of works from art history, especially grotesque Italian painting. From its backgrounds and corners, she salvages ornaments, characters, and architectonic fantasies, fully aware that throughout Western history esoteric contents have peopled that marginal repertoire. The visual nature of León’s painting is like a jungle with layers of brushstrokes and dabs of color. Small figures surface from within their midst; we must hone our vision to make them out in the voluptuous work. Embroideries or incrusted objects might appear as well, or questions written out carefully in cursive—the painting suddenly seems to be an oracle. Some of her works are even composed using a number of paintings, one on top of the other, and then covered with blankets of leaves from trees sewn together.

With her paintings and other elements, the artist assembles spaces for the public to inhabit—laden installations and ecosystems that surround the viewer. León’s practice and production could be called rhizomatic insofar as, in them, whole and part, the intimate and the collective converge, as do multiple temporalities.

Selected Works

Pintora de fin de semana
2023 Room view Ruth Benzacar Art Gallery
Bendición de río
2023 Embroidery and acrylic on cotton fabric. Latex, acrylic, and oil on phenolic resin. Pulley system, fiberglass, and resin. Bay leaf and eucalyptus, caramel candies, and lotus fruit
Pintora de fin de semana
2023 Room view Ruth Benzacar Art Gallery
Pintora de fin de semana
2023 Room view Ruth Benzacar Art Gallery
Untitled
2022 Acrylic and embroidery on iron structure 249 x 490 x 145 cm
La que alimenta el movimiento mientras duerme
2021 Acrylic and embroidery on cotton fabric 187 x 232 cm
Yambeque
2020 Acrylic on cotton canvas prepared with glue and filler, with paper appliqués 210 x 124 cm
Chechecolé
2019 Mixed media and appliqués on fabric 210 x 260 cm
Patio o pintura para piso y plantas
2007-2018 Installation Oil paintings, papier-mâché figures, banana trees, and large mounds of earth with chicken bones, pomegranates, and live snails
Lluvia, astrologia impredectiva
2017 Interval Interdisciplinary and participatory project
Lluvia, astrologia impredectiva
2017 Intervalo Proyecto interdisciplinario y participativo
Lluvia, astrologia impredectiva
2017 Intervalo Proyecto interdisciplinario y participativo Video
A todxs lxs que vinieron antes
2016 Acrylic, embroidery, and fabric appliqués on cotton fabric 147 x 112 cm
Tela para el son y la salsa que son fuente de mí alegría
2016 Oil, acrylic, and embroidery on cotton fabric 172 x 232 cm
Las simples cosas
2015 Acrylic, colored pencil, and pencil tips on cotton fabric 225 x 112 cm
El sacrificio inútil
2015 Paintings on canvas, plaster and stretcher bars View of the installation made at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sacrificio inutil
Room view
Untitled
2015 Acrylic and colored pencil on plaster debris
El alegre pescador
2014 Acrylic, oil, and latex on Durlock 210 x 120 cm
Untitled
2014 Acrylic and oil on canvas and acrylic on cotton fabric 275 x 240 cm
En un día
2014 Acrylic on cotton canvas 410 x 150 cm
Bendición de río
2014 Embroidery and acrylic on cotton fabric. Latex, acrylic, and oil on phenolic resin. Pulley system, fiberglass, and resin. Bay leaf and eucalyptus, caramel candies, and lotus fruit 240 x 317 x 230 cm
Tela del medio día
2014 Acrylic, pencil, oil appliqués on canvas, metal buttons, and embroidery on cotton fabric 110 x 92 cm
El alegre pescador
2013 Acrylic, oil, and latex on Durlock 210 x 120 cm
La creciente
2013 Acrylic, oil, and latex on Durlock 210 x 120 cm
Gahnadeiras de itapua I
2013 Acrylic, oil, and latex on Durlock 210 x 120 cm
Sin título
2012 Acrylic, oil, and latex on Durlock 153 x 120 cm
Untitled
2012 Acrylic, pencil, and embroidery on cotton fabric 130 x 218 cm
Untitled
2012 Acrylic, pencil, and embroidery on cotton fabric 280 x 148 cm
Muda
2011 Installation Paintings on canvas, wood, and plasterboard; wall interventions; papier-mâché figures; embroidery on cotton with raw wool threads; and hand-sewn cloaks made from rubber tree and avocado leaves
Muda
Room view
Muda
2010 Durlock, pencil, acrylic, and embroidery on cotton fabric 220 x 245 cm
Collar
2009 Acrylic, oil, embroidery, and ceramic appliqués on cotton fabric 180 x 160 cm
Tienda Liverpool
2004-2008 Acrylic, oil paint, ballpoint pen, cowrie shells, banana peels, coins, and embroidery on cotton fabric 135 x 190 cm

CATALINA LEÓN CV

Born in 1981, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

She is a visual artist and cultural manager. She began her artistic training in 1998 attending various workshops and, after simultaneously pursuing other studies, in 2001 she decided to devote herself mainly to the visual arts. She studied with the artist Mariana López, whom she considers essential in her training, and between 2003 and 2005 she participated in the Kuitca / Rojas UBA Scholarship Program.

His first solo exhibition, Convertidas en perlas tus lágrimas brotan del mar, took place at the Galería de Arte Alberto Sendrós, Buenos Aires (2004). This was followed by Cruz Imaginal, Daniel Abate Art Gallery, Buenos Aires (2008), after winning in 2007 the First Prize of the arteBA / Petrobras Award with his work Patio ó pintura para piso y plantas; Muda, Alberto Sendrós Art Gallery, Buenos Aires (2011) and El sacrificio Inútil, Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires (2015).

Since 2005 his works participated in numerous group exhibitions, such as J’En Rêve, Fondation Cartierpourl’ArtContemporain, Paris (2005); Rendez-Vouz (2008), Museéd’ArtContemporain, Lyon (2008); Why Painting? Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires (2009); Escuelismo, Arte Argentino de los 90, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires-Fundación Costantini (2009); Mientras sea posible, Casa de América, Madrid (2010); PintorAs, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario MACRO, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Salta and Museo Caraffa, Córdoba (2010); Arte Argentino Actual en la colección del Malba. Works 1989-2010, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires-Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires (2011); Últimas tendencias II, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (2012); Braque Prize, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Province of Buenos Aires (2013). The School of Nature and Principle, EFA Project Space, New York (2015). Nature, refuge and resource of man, CCK Buenos Aires (2017). Hogar Dulce Hogar, National University of Tres de Febrero, Province of Buenos Aires (2018). In 2019 she participated in the 14th Curitiba Biennial in the exhibition Los hilos del Ritual.Also in 2019 she presented at the Usina del Arte, Buenos Aires the installation Un Zodíaco Posible (work in progress) to which Lluvia, astrología impredictiva is part of; a participatory project to rethink, through art, the traditional imaginaries of astrology and its practical use in everyday life.

Allongside, since 2010, she is director and co-founder of Vergel, a civil organization that intertwines art, health and education.

Individual exhibitions

2019
Un zodíaco posible. Lluvia, astrología impredictiva. Usina del Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2018
Membrana, recipiente coral de la memoria. C.C. Daoiz y Velarde, Madrid, España.

2016
 Verano de San Juan, Factory Gallery. Seoul, Korea

2015
El sacrificio inútil, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2011
Muda, Galería Alberto Sendrós. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2008
Cruz Imaginal, Galería Daniel Abate. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2004
Convertidas en perlas tus lágrimas brotan del mar, Galería Alberto Sendrós. Buenos Aires, Argentiana

Group exhibitions

2022
Reunión. Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2021
Trama Sinfónica MARCO – Museo de Arte Contemporánea de La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Economía de recursos. El Obrador, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Reunión. Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2019
Fronteiras em aberto 14° Bienal  internacional de arte contemporáneo de  Curitiba. Septiembre 2019- Marzo 2020. Curitiba, Brasil.
Amigx el future es nuestro. Pintoras 10 años, Usina del arte. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2018
Hogar Dulce Hogar, Tres de Febrero National University, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2017
Naturaleza, recurso y refugio del hombre, Centro Cultural Kirchner. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2016
Diagonal Sur, Artistas de la Colección de Esteban Tedesco, Centro Cultural Borges. Buenos Aires, Argentin

2015
Focus Exhibition, Art Toronto. Toronto, Canadá
The School of Nature and Principle, EFA Project Space. New York, Estados Unidos
My Buenos Aires, La Maison Rouge. Paris, Francia

2013
Programa Nacional de adquisiciones de arte contemporáneo, Casa Nacional del Bicentenario. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Alba, Galería Machete. México DF, México

2012
Ultimas Tendencias II (Donaciones suspendidas), Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2011
Arte argentino actual en la colección del Malba. Obras 1989-2010, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Fundación E. Constatini. Buenos Aires, Argentina Encabalgamientos, Galería Alberto Sendrós, Arteba 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina
PintorAs, Centro Cultural Hogar San José, Olavarria, Teatro Auditorium. Mar del Plata; Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2010
PintorAs, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario, Santa Fe; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Salta, Museo Provincial Dr. Juan Vidal, Corrientes, Argentina
Que puede la quietud, galería Gachi Prieto. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mientras sea posible, Casa América. Madrid, España

2009
Escuelismo. Arte Argentino de los 90, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Fundación E. Constatini. Buenos Aires, Argentina
¿Por qué pintura?, Fondo Nacional de las Artes. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Lost for Life, Pabellón de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires en Arte Americas. Miami, Estados Unidos

2008
Adquisiciones, donaciones y comodatos. Obras Malba – Fundación Constantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Salón de Museo Castagnino + Macro, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Rosario, Argentina
Rendez-vous 2008, MAC Lyon. Lyon, Argentina

2007 
Patio o pintura para piso y plantas, Premio ArteBA – Petrobras de Artes Visuales. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2006
Todos, galería Daniel Abate. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2005
Open Studio Beca Kuitca. Buenos Aires, Argentina
J’en reve, Fondation Cartier. París, Francia

Awards

2013
Premio Braque, Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, Seleccionada. Buenos Aires, Argentina

2007 
Premio ArteBA-Petrobras a las Artes Visuales, Primer Premio. Buenos Aires, Argentina

Texts

CATALINA LEÓN. The Useless Sacrifice. Alejandra Aguado, 2015

Over the past ten years, the work of Catalina León has stood out for the innovative way in which it has expanded the expressive horizons of painting. Fascinated by astrology, psychology, religions and rituals, she explores what it means to be a human being in the world and the bonds that link us to the people around us. She investigates how painting is part of and responds to life: she has covered her paintings with earth and plants, she has poked holes in them and left them at the mercy of the elements, she has painted rubble, broken plaster panels, blinds and worn out fabric, and she has filled them with phrases, small portraits, references to her fears and desires, and gestures derived from her own movements. Combining figurative and abstract techniques, representation and reality, her painting has grown permeable not only to her presence and reflections, but also to her material surroundings in an unending process that transforms it into a living being with its own life and resonances.

Catalina once described her work as a way of ‘inhabiting time’. Her painted panels, cardboard and fabrics acquire their shape and language as the days go by. She allows herself to be freely carried away by the act of painting, drawing and embroidery with no specific plan or timetable. The artist dedicates herself to the act of making and silent acceptance, immersed in a kind of prayer while the pieces absorb the marks left upon them by movements, the climate, or random touches, exposing them to the ravages of chance and time. Her painting does not just embrace the random, it is also an act of active submission: a process that embodies the unexpected; a quality best described as ‘useless sacrifice’, an act that the French anthropologist Jean Duvignaud – whose book about ritual festivals and religion inspired Catalina as she created her latest work – defined as a disinterested and unpredictable act that allows the self to discard its inhibitions and open up to the infinite.

Produced at her house-workshop – a space where life and art merge together – the works that Catalina is presenting at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires seem to be founded, now more than ever, in her deepest painterly instincts. She has followed these instincts without knowing where they were taking her, thus allowing her to translate her inner world into the unexpected lines and shapes that result from the encounter with the canvas. Her work appears to have discarded greater battles and grown more concentrated, with fewer, precise, confident and fluently realized forms. With less room for figurative aspects and anecdotes and a more relaxed atmosphere, her pieces approach abstraction and even emptiness. “The narrative melts away, expanding to reveal itself with greater clarity,” Catalina says, as though painting only the essential aspects and freeing the canvas from recognizable images made it easier for her to find and recognize herself within it. However, some written phrases remain along with small figures, motifs linked to the exuberance of nature, references to places or objects. The forms that inhabit the pieces in the exhibition seek to represent the course of thought and vital rhythms, to be the image of the emotions and events that occur in her life, the thoughts that ran through her head and whose essence remained, of her openness to revelations and the future. Quick, determined brush strokes and fields of colour with ill-defined borders are joined by assorted embroidered pieces. All these aspects express the different moods that come over her over time, oscillating between audacious and reflective attitudes: while the brush moves lightly and freely over the surface, the stitches come together almost frozen in time.

Spread out or concentrated together, dense or sparse, the energy of these works arises out of a long, intimate exercise, a process carried out in a daily environment fed by artisanal, ritual, and chance aspects, personal bonds and integration with nature. In their appropriation of space, the works invite movement and discovery. Like a useless sacrifice, everything here is a generous execution that began as a search and ended by offering a point of encounter.

Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires

Press

ENTREVISTAS COLECCIONABLES. Catalina León por Sol Ganim y Silvina Yesari
LA NACIÓN. Pintoras divergentes: exploran los límites más allá del pincel y la pared, por María Paula Zacharías. 2017
REVISTA Ñ. Evocación de la pintura, por Ana Maria Battistozzi. 2015
PAGINA/12. Partes de mí, por Tomas Espina. 2011
ARTE-ONLINE. Sin palabras, por Sofía Dourron. 2011
PAGINA/12. El hornero amable, Por Catalina León. 2008
LA NACIÓN. Una tierna audacia. 2008
PAGINA/12. Los adioses, por Catalina León. 2007
PAGINA/12. No gaste una vida siendo cool, por Leopoldo Estol. 2007
PAGINA/12. Buscando un símbolo de paz, Por Catalina León. 2006
PAGINA/12. Plástica 2 - La caída del muro, por María Gainza. 2004

Publications

Sol en casa 8. Image book. Texts by Ticio Escobar y Alejandra Aguado, 2018

BUY

Sol en casa 8. Text book. Texts by Ticio Escobar y Alejandra Aguado, 2018

BUY

Sacrificio Inútil. Museo MODERNO, Buenos Aires 2015

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