Angela de la Cruz's Art Exhibition in Birmingham Highlights Resilience Through Broken Forms
Angela de la Cruz, a Spanish artist based in London, is presenting her first UK solo show outside the capital at Ikon in Birmingham. Despite being nominated for the Turner prize in 2010 and recognized as a major figure in the art world, this exhibition marks a significant milestone in her career.
Artworks on the Verge of Collapse: A Deeper Look
The exhibition features artworks that appear crumpled and crumbling, with canvases broken and folded in on themselves, and sculptures assembled from what seems like barely held-together junk. Upon entering the quiet, sparse show, visitors encounter a black-painted canvas wrapped around an old two-legged table, once owned by Guardian art critic Adrian Searle. Nearby, a painting in thick, brown gunk—described as a fecal monochrome—has its bottom corner snapped off but is gaffer taped back on, wedged upright to resemble a body that is faulty and leaky, yet patched up and forced back to verticality.
It becomes clear that these pieces are not on the brink of collapse; they have already collapsed and been repaired, propped back up, mended, and brought back to life. This theme of mending and resilience is central to de la Cruz's work, reflecting her personal journey after a stroke left her using a wheelchair. Her body, while not as functional as before, continues to work, much like her art.
Mending and Patching: The Artistic Process
De la Cruz's art embodies a sense of mending, patching, and bodging together. Examples include a white plinth balanced on a white leather sofa, a wobbly three-legged chair plonked on a stool, a piano whacked on top of another piano to allow standing play, and a red painting teetered on top of a collapsed canvas. Everything is broken but cobbled into something that resembles form and function.
The double upright piano, created for a performance of The Nutcracker in collaboration with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, symbolizes repairing the seemingly irreparable. Just as the nutcracker doll gets broken and fixed, or ballet dancers' pointe shoes are snapped to function, de la Cruz's work emphasizes getting on with the job despite adversity.
Emotional Depth Beyond Modernist Tropes
While the art relies on modernist tropes like monochromes and minimalism, giving it a formal and cold surface appearance, it is emotionally and conceptually rich. These artworks are funny and humorous, yet filled with frustration—paintings angrily smashed to reflect bodily destruction, then quickly repaired as tempers cooled. They are deeply frail and human, telling a powerful story of staying strong in the face of adversity and getting back up no matter how hard one falls.
The exhibition transforms the paintings and sculptures into a cast of broken ballerinas, still twirling and plié-ing, showcasing resilience. Angela de la Cruz: Upright is on display at Ikon, Birmingham, from 25 March to 6 September, offering a poignant exploration of perseverance through art.
