Reble

Marquesa Gallery presents Reble, Gerard Fernández Rico’s first exhibition at its Madrid space, curated by Mariana Rey. Bringing together new sculptures and wall works, the exhibition explores how materials associated with industry and construction can acquire an artistic dimension while retaining the memory of their origins.

The title comes from a construction term: reble refers to rubble, fragments of stone and other remnants reused to fill voids or give substance and solidity to a structure. The word places the exhibition within the transition between the loss of one function and the possibility of acquiring another.

Iron, wood, scaffolding structures and lighting fixtures form part of Fernández Rico’s material vocabulary. His interest in factories and systems of production extends to objects that have become obsolete, been abandoned or fallen into disuse. By removing these elements from their familiar contexts, the artist transforms their function and opens up other ways of reading them.