marfil.en
Clara Sánchez Sala
Spain, 1987
“Writing is trying to know what we would write if we wrote”
Marguerite Duras, Écrire, Gallimard, 1993
As an echo of the artistic practice of Clara Sánchez Sala, this quote by Marguerite Duras accompanies her entire production to date. If for Duras writing is an intention, for Sánchez, the act of creating is an attempt that takes place in the impossible meeting of past and present.
The artist constantly remembers and measures her favorite trips, the time that elapses between autobiographical events and history. From this poetics of intimacy, she not only recreates her personal history, but also plays with temporal imbalances to awaken a feeling of estrangement from her personal environment.
Clara’s works are indications that point to the heuristic effect of distance. The artist thus places the viewer in the archaeologist’s situation, seeing the pieces as riddles that she cannot directly identify. Sánchez regularly uses this distancing process to question what is seen and what is known, and thus underline the idea of impermanence and incompleteness.
She has participated in exhibitions at the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Fundación MARSO, Fundación Otazu, La Laboral, EACC, and Centro Cultural Conde Duque.
Her work is part of collections such as the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Colección DKV, Kells Collection, and Fundación Otazu, among others.
Clara Sánchez Sala
Del marfil al color hígado [From Ivory to Liver-Tone]
NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ
2025
Del marfil al color hígado [From Ivory to Liver-Tone] unfolds as a sustained exploration of the boundaries between matter and body. The project emerges from a persistent search to confer corporeal weight to the inanimate, activating the illusion of life in sculptural forms through gestures that move between the ritual and the everyday.
Halfway between the intimacy of the gesture and the resonance of the classical, the works combine diverse materials—such as makeup—with others of sculptural tradition and historical weight, like wax, silk, wood, or bronze. This friction between the domestic and the noble challenges conventional hierarchies, proposing a dialogue between the sensory experience of the body and the abstraction of being.
The installation generates a space where the sculptural seems to brush against the human, not through formal mimesis, but through its ability to evoke presence. Here, the inanimate takes on flesh, breathes life. From Ivory to Liver-Tone is a reflection on the possibility of inhabiting sculpture.
The exhibition departs from an approach that understands sculpture not as a closed, finished object, but as a bodily and ritual process, open to time, transformation, and sensory experience. In this transition, the use of everyday materials from the domestic sphere, such as makeup or parquet flooring from a home, is observed and worked through a sculptural lens. All of the project’s pieces originate from domestic objects to generate an ensemble that breathes life into inert materials, inhabiting them within the domestic space.
The project’s title establishes a direct reference to two classical sculptural materials: ivory and bronze. On the one hand, ivory evokes a symbolic relationship with the human bone, not only because of its whitish and yellowish tones, but also due to its history laden with corporeal connotations. On the other hand, “liver color” alludes to a specific patina applied to bronze in classical sculpture, known as hepatizon, which acquired a dark, reddish hue similar to that of the organ after which it was named. Both materials, in their tactile and visual qualities, seem to lean toward the idea of the body, as if the inanimate were attempting to simulate vital presence—signaling a symbolic passage from inert to living, and recovering the mythical gesture of Pygmalion.
Clara Sánchez Sala
Un velo davanti algli occhi (Luini)
2025
Makeup on silk
95 x 95 x 4 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala. Del marfil al color hígado [From Ivory to Liver-Tone]. 2025. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ. Madrid
Clara Sánchez Sala
Un velo davanti algli occhi (MNAC)
2025
Makeup on silk
95 x 95 x 4 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala
Un velo davanti algli occhi (Beccafumi)
2025
Makeup on silk
95 x 95 x 4 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala. Del marfil al color hígado [From Ivory to Liver-Tone]. 2025. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ. Madrid
Clara Sánchez Sala
Del marfil al color hígado
2025
Makeup on cotton
Variable dimensions
Clara Sánchez Sala
Tous les revêtements de la maison (installation)
2025
Photograph on wooden platform
Variable dimensions
Clara Sánchez Sala
Omphalós y pedúnculos
2025
Brass
7 x 92 x 1 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala. Del marfil al color hígado [From Ivory to Liver-Tone]. 2025. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ. Madrid
Clara Sánchez Sala
La seuil du bronze
2025
Antique door knocker and bronze
9,3 x 4 x 5,5 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala. Del marfil al color hígado [From Ivory to Liver-Tone]. 2025. NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ. Madrid
Clara Sánchez Sala
Tous les revêtements de la maison
2025
Photograph on wooden platform
100 x 200 x 4 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala
Tous les revêtements de la maison
2025
Photograph on wooden platform
100 x 100 x 4 cm
Clara Sánchez Sala
Solo exhibitions
2025
From Ivory to Liver-Tone, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2022
Noli me tangere, VARIATION/Paris, Galerie Sator, Paris
Noli me tangere, Campanice, Porto
2021
Templo-Pladur, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
As respigadoras, Galería do Sol, Porto
Kitchen Table Artist, A Pick Gallery, Turin
2018
El primer obstáculo: La experiencia básica, Galería ATM, Gijón
2017
Fazer Horas, curated by Fátima Lambert, Quase Galeria, Porto
Fazer Viagens, curated by Fátima Lambert, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Porto
Group exhibitions (selection)
2025
Aquí y Ahora, Instituto Cervantes de Paris, Paris
2024
Malas Hierbas, Casabanchel, Madrid
L’art de l’araignée, JULIO, Paris
2023
A prática do infinito pela leitura, curated by Catarina Domingues & Ricardo Ribeiro, Centro Cultural Vila Flor, Guimarães
2022
Art Contemporani de la Generalitat Valenciana V, Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània, Valencia
2021
Una historia del arte reciente /1960–2020/, Museo de Arte Abstracto de Cuenca, Fundación Juan March
Aragon Park II, Coslada, Madrid
Pot-life, curated by Carlos Fernández Pello, Galería ATM, Gijón
Una conversación sensible al poder, curated by Lola Iglesias, Museo Casa Natal de Cervantes, Madrid
Bio-Lecturas, Espai d’Art Contemporani de Castelló (EACC), Castellón
2020
Colección XX: Historia del arte, curated by Manuel Segade and Tania Pardo, CA2M, Madrid
Aquelarre, curated by Jessica Berlanga Taylor and Sofía Mariscal, Fundación Marso, Mexico City
El Arca. Lecturas contemporáneas del Archivo de la Villa, curated by Pía Ogea, Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid
Aragon Park, Coslada, Madrid
2019
Tu não viste nada, curated by Tiago Baptista, Duplex AIR, Lisbon
A play of Boundaries, curated by Jaime González and Manuela Pedrón, Galería Carlos Carvalho, Lisbon
Apuntes para un tiempo geológico, curated by Virginia Torrente, Galería Ángeles Baños, Badajoz
Heimat / Mi Tierra, curated by Sofía Mariscal, Fundación Otazu, Pamplona
2018
XXIX Circuitos de Artes Plásticas de la Comunidad de Madrid, curated by Bernardo Sopelana, Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid
Idea, materia y forma: nuevo paradigma de la escultura actual, curated by Cristina Anglada and Gema Melgar, Madrid
2017
Adventus, curated by Pablo L. Álvarez, Galería ATM, Gijón
Anábasis, curated by Bernardo Sopelana, Mustang Art Gallery, Alicante
Narraciones Ficcionales, curated by Semíramis González, Galería 6más1, Madrid
2016
El gran Tour, curated by Beatriz Escudero, Sant Andreu Contemporani, Barcelona
Desdecirse, curated by Carlos Copertone, Galería 6más1, Madrid
La materia errante, curated by Bernardo Sopelana, Alimentación 30, Madrid
2015
No-where: Barcos y Volcanes, curated by Eduardo Hurtado, Salón, Madrid
2014
La Vietnamita, curated by Marlon de Azambuja, OTR, Madrid
2012
Encolectivo, Fundación Antonio Pérez, Contemporary Art Center, Cuenca
2011
Entorno al dibujo, curated by Gonzalo Puch, Faculty of Fine Arts, UCLM, Cuenca
Awards
2020
Grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Sports for research, creation, and production in visual arts
2019
Acquisition Prize, Colección Navacerrada
2018
Circuitos de Artes Plásticas Award, Community of Madrid
Creation Grant, Community of Madrid
2017
Injuve Grant for Young Creation
Residency Grant from the Community of Madrid for artists abroad
2016
ESTAMPA Acquisition Prize, Los Bragales Collection
2015
V Encontro de Artistas Novos, Cidade da Cultura, Santiago de Compostela
Getxo Arte, Bilbao
2014
SCAN – International Photography Festival, Tarragona
Residencies
2023
Manoir de la Moissie, creative residency, Belvès, France
2019
Orbital Residency, international residency program for artists, Santander, Spain
2018
ADDAYA – Centre d’Art Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2017
International Residency at Hangar, Lisbon, Portugal
2016
PLUS II, creative and research residency, University of Alicante Museum, Spain
Museums and collections
Generalitat Valenciana Collection, Valencia
Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Madrid
DKV Collection, Zaragoza
Fundación Otazu, Pamplona
Colección Navacerrada, Madrid
Colección Kells, Santander
Colección Utópicus, Spain
Los Bragales Collection, Santander