Esther Gatón works across sculpture, audiovisual pieces, installation and text. Her site specific environments tend to distort the meaning attached to various materials, creating forms that affect our movement or posture, and in which the prevailing question is not the object itself, but how it interacts with its surroundings.
In the work of Esther Gatón, the sensuality of grafting is propagated through her artisanal technique. Disparate materials are brought together, the gaps between them narrowed in a trope-like game of seduction in which organic and osseous forms appear as a reaction to the surroundings, while also being reflected as a stimulus, being placed and assuming their position within a material history of both past and present circumstances. Skin grafting: poetic transplants of marked and reactive material, of speech embodied, and skins that become tropes. Reddened, shiny and wrinkled, with bruises and scars that are infected, contorted and embellished, material surfaces are a simile and hyperbole for what surrounds them. – Beatriz Ortega Botas, 2017
Esther Gatón studied fine art at Saint-Luc in Liège (BE), University of Barcelona (ES), and Goldsmiths London (GB). She holds a cum laude PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid. She has worked as an honorary collaborator at the Complutense University of Madrid and as a lecturer at Master Landa. Recent awards include Circuitos de las Artes Plásticas, Injuve, The Ayudas Comunidad of Madrid, London Art Council, a-n Bursaries, Veepee Visions of The Future, and Generaciones 2022.
Gatón has exhibited work in institutions such as Capc (Bordeaux), Matadero (Madrid), La Casa Encendida (Madrid), Patio Herreriano Museum (Valladolid), Navarra University Museum, CA2M Museum (Madrid), Fabra I Coats (Barcelona), Etopía (Zaragoza), Palacio Condes de Gabia (Granada), Laboral Centro de Arte (Gijón), TEA (Tenerife), and Sala de Arte Joven (Madrid), and in independent spaces or galleries such as The Ryder (London), Intersticio (London), korai (Cyprus), Nordés (Santiago), Luis Adelantado (Valencia), The Watch (Berlin), Elba Benítez & Schneider Colao (Madrid), Cibrián (Donostia-San Sebastián), and Verão (Lisbon), among others. She is currently in residency at WIELS in Brussels, and will have a solo show at CA2M Museum Madrid in 2023, curated by Cory John Scozzari.
[ARTICLES]
Curatorial texts:
Press:
Emil Lime, Museo CA2M, Móstoles (ES)
Salted Peelings, with Gudny Rosa Ingimarsdottir, Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Blanc, El Fang. -La Màquina Solar Més Suau, Racoon, Barcelona (ES)
Eu tinha poucos anos e já era rigorosamente anciã, Verão, Lisbon (PT)
One Hammer Coming Your Way, Feria ARCO, Madrid (ES)
Screening Room, Residency 11:11, London (UK)
Where Water Rumbles, Metalloids, Intersticio, London (UK)
Moss Vychissoise, with Nora Baron, The Ryder, London (UK)
Goldsmiths Degree Show, Ben Pimlott Building 4th floor, London (UK)
Ugly Enemies, accompanied with a text by Benedict Singleton, Cibrián Gallery, Donostia San Sebastian (ES)
SLURP, GLUG, Luis Adelantado Gallery, Valencia (ES)
ARENA, with Ana de Fontecha and Florence Sweeney, Espositivo, Madrid (ES)
Abrigo La Nuca, Galería Aldama Fabre, Bilbao (ES)
Las virtudes, Museo Patio Herreriano, Valladolid (ES)
MANERAS / Oh, how we need a new language to go with our new bodies!, Gextoarte, Bilbao (ES)
Sombra de Ojos with Julián Cruz. Galería Javier Silva, Valladolid (ES)
19 with editorial cientodieciocho, Estudio Mendoza, Madrid (ES)
Tsk with Andrea Beade, Galería h2o, Barcelona (ES)
Concretos, cur. by Gilberto González and Pablo León de la Barra, TEA Tenerife (ES)
CULTURA = CAPITAL, Oliva Arauna Collection at Torre Don Borja, Santillana del Mar (ES)
Feeling/Concealing at Casa Morlanes, Zaragoza (ES)
Strange Strangers, cur. Irene Adorni at Parsec, Bolonia (IT)
Screen at Art Viewer, cur. Cristina Ramos Al Alcance, accompanied with a poem by Michael Lawton, Dilalica Barcelona (ES)
El Medio y el Tiempo, cur. Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo and Nicolás Combarro, Fundación Mariano Fortuny, Granada (ES)
Descripción de un Estado Físico, cur. Pepe Suárez, Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid (ES)
Le Club du Poisson-Lune, cur. Cédric Fauq, CAPC, Bordeaux (FR)
Dialecto, CA2M, Madrid (ES)
You May Come Full Circle, Cibrián, Donostia-San Sebastián (ES)
Trémula, (Esther Gatón’s sculpture was part of the installation show by Javier Cruz), cur. Tania Pardo and Manuel Segade, CA2M, Madrid (ES)
Oculto en la Sombra, Sucediendo en el Margen, Disolviendo la Forma, cur. Marta Ramos-Yzquierdo, Galería Nordés Santiago (ES)
BREADCRUMB edited by Cristina Ramos, and Eliot Z. Felde, Onomatopee 219 (GE)
A Space to Hold The Gaze (projection) Liliya Art Gallery, London (UK)
El Gran Banquete, Las Francesas Public Space, Valladolid (ES)
Death As Decorator, audio-book in collaboration with Darya Diamond and Blythe Cain
Volver dentro del cuerpo, cur. Marta Echaves, Injuve, Madrid (ES)
La mina de sal – La sed animal, cur. Margot Cuevas, Gisela Chillida, Daniel Moreno, Mónica Panes and Alex Palacín, Art Nou Barcelona (ES)
Un metro y medio, cur. Manuel Segade and Tania Pardo, CA2M, Madrid (ES)
El Resto, cur. Marina Alonso, Pau Cassany, Sofía Enríquez, Dailey Fernández and Inés Hornero, Museo Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona (ES)
System Safari, Arebyte Gallery, London (UK)
Down the Rabbit Hole, cur. Daisuke Kato, Madriguera, Madrid (ES)
Pou Sou Nefko Pou Paeis, Koraï Cyprus (CY)
Adrenaline Querubín, at Where Water Rumbles, Metalloids cur. Cristina Herráiz in collaboration with Scan Projects. Intersticio, London (UK)
Goldsmiths Degree Show, Ben Pimlott Building 4th floor, London (UK)
El hecho alegre. Una mecánica popular de los sentidos, cur. Tania Pardo, La Casa Encendida Madrid (SP)
Six Memos, cur. by Branka Bencic, Bridge Gallery in St George Hall, Liverpool (UK)
Six Memos, cur. by Branka Bencic, Labirynt Gallery, Lublin (POL)
Dazzling Encounters, cur. by Cristina Herráiz, Sanderson Hotel, London (UK)
The one that´s always there, the one that came late, the one that never arrived, the one that wasn´t invited, SB34-The Pool, Brussels (BE)
Extended Spaces, curated by Sérgio Fazenda Rodrigues. Irène Laub Gallery, Brussels (BE)
Rocks radio radar long wave radiation, cur. by Cristina Ramos, The Watch, Berlin (DE)
Mensaje de Arecibo, cur. by D11, Etopía Centro de Arte y Tecnología, Zaragoza (SP)
Circuitos XXIX, cur. by Bernardo Sopelana. Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid (SP)
beneath the beach, seamless paving stones. the wrong biennale
4, 2, 3 legs t(f)ake a zancada, oomph! with Henrique Lázaro Palmeirim. interim show Deptford Goldsmiths, London (UK)
SWAB, with Espositivo. Barcelona (SP)
CALL20, Galería Luis Adelantado, Valencia (SP)
Six Memos, cur. by Branka Bencic, Sala Las Francesas, Valladolid (SP)
Lo Digerido, cur. by Dalia de la Rosa, Espacio Dörffi, Lanzadore (SP)
No es lo que aparece, Premio Miquel Casablancas Fabra i Coats Centre d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona (SP)
Molto Molto Fuori, Casabanchel, Madrid (SP)
ARENA. with Ana de Fontecha and Florence Sweeney. Espositivo, Madrid (SP)
Circuitos XXIX, cur. Bernardo Sopelana. Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid (SP)
Mensaje de Arecibo, cur. D11. Etopía Centro de Arte y Tecnología, Zaragoza (SP)
Six Memos, cur. Branka Bencic. Sala Las Francesas, Valladolid (SP)
Cardar la lana, Espositivo, Madrid (SP)
Haciendo Días, CENTEX, Valparaíso (CH)
Grasping a Concept is Mastering the Use of a Form, La Casa Encendida, Madrid (SP)
MANERAS / Oh, how we need a new language to go with our new bodies!*. Gextoarte, Bilbao (SP)
Sombra de Ojos with Julián Cruz. Galería Javier Silva, Valladolid (SP)
Laboratorio intránsit cartec, Madrid (SP)
Exposición Fronteiras e Estados de Sitio, Biblioteca Río Grande, Brasil (BR)
Creadores Inquietos, Sala Municipal Las Francesas, Valladolid (SP)
Premio Cátedra Árte y Enfermedades, UPV, Valencia (SP)
Janos, The Inmaterial Worker, Centro de arte complutense, Madrid (SP)
Entre el reflejo, Entreacto, Galería Espacio Mínimo, Madrid (SP)
Projectes Germinals, Sala 0 Museo Picasso, Barcelona (SP)
Carne Fresca, El Ranchito, Matadero, Madrid (SP)
Wiels, Brussels (BE)
Generaciones, Madrid (ES)
Time Space Money Bursary, London (EN)
Veepee Art Price
Ayudas a La Creación, Comunidad de Madrid (ES)
Art Council Artist Support Grant
Acquisition, CA2M, Madrid (ES)
Ayudas a La Creación, Comunidad de Madrid (ES)
Injuve, Madrid (ES)
Sant Andreu Contemporari, Barcelona (ES)
Circuitos de las Artes Plásticas, Madrid (ES)
Sala O Patio Herreriano Museum, Valladolid (ES)
Premio Cátedra Árte y Enfermedades, UPV, Valencia (ES)
The Gym, RAMPA, Madrid (ES)
La Trasera, Programa Sin Créditos, Faculty of Arts UCM, Madrid (ES)
