Last Universal Common Ancestor. 8/8 - 25/8

Last Universal Common Ancestor

Jaume Roig & Jean Marie del Moral

Jaume Roig takes us to the origins of life through sculpture, accompanied by unpublished photographs of the creative process in his studio, taken by the prestigious Moral photographer.

Schedule

August

From 8 August to 25 August of 2024 inclusive.

Afternoons (17:00 - 21:00).

Always by appointment.

The exhibition has now closed.

Exhibition

Jaume Roig’s exhibition opens on Wednesday, August 8. It takes us back in time to find a common ground, where everything begins, far from cutting-edge technology to the origins of all life on earth.

Sculptor and painter, Roig learned his trade by osmosis, growing up in the Mallorcan studio of his ceramist mother. With his personal research he has made the art his own, a modern interpretation of traditional ancient ceramics. Roig immerses himself in the authentic physical world, living on the island with simplicity, taking care of his cattle, and using his studio to create works from the essentials, looking for simplicity and purity in forms, playing with the limit of imperfection. He uses austere techniques and forms to work with both clay and paint. He always takes into account the volume, light and shadow that will complete each piece, with the aim of achieving a result that could be old or from the future, in other words: the challenge of timelessness.

For this new exhibition, Roig presents “Last Universal Common Ancestor” (LUCA), a single-celled bacterium hypothesized at the root of the tree of life, from which sprung all the infinite forms of existence that surround us. Roig asks us to step back not thousands, but billions of years, to the first life forms from which we can connect our own lineage.

His sculptures develop the structure of this microscopic and simple form, on our own human scale, looking for that which on an existential level unites us to all beings, or which on an artistic level would be the origin of all forms, as is the line or the circle. Roig has also created new sculptures with the blacksmith Joan Ramón Sunyer which he presents for the first time in this exhibition at the Secret Mill and which will complement the paintings and ceramics.

Roig’s installation is accompanied by six photographs taken at the Es Pinaret studio, between 2019 and 2024. The photographs are the work of the beloved and prestigious photographer Jean Marie del Moral, who has immortalized the workshops and works of Miró and Barcelona among many contemporary artists. During the inauguration, the monographic book made by del Moral that reveals Roig’s study and creative practice will be presented for the first time in public.