2026
Bilingual Spanish-English edition
Texts: Victoria Noorthoorn, Gabriela Rangel, Ksenia M. Soboleva, Edward J. Sullivan
English translation: Ian Barnett, Leslie Robertson
Spanish translation: Julia Benseñor
Design: Horacio Wainhaus, Matías Schilman
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216 pages
Format: 28 × 19 cm
ISBN 978-987-22339-2-1
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“In the exhibition Linda Matalon: Marcas imborrables, we presented two keystone series from the Cuban-American artist’s vast output of works on paper, created during pandemics that left a deep mark on her: the COVID-19 and the earlier AIDS pandemic, which so ravaged the LGBTQ+ community of the early 1990s, to which Matalon belongs. The works of both series share the small format and the fact that they were made on the paper the artist had at hand in such conditions of emergency or confinement. Both series also work with fragile materials, fusing together paper, wax and tar or graphite to allow the recording – technically indelible – of every single gesture, stroke and trace Matalon made on the paper. They are true palimpsests, each drawing becoming a witness and translation of the artist’s critical experiences and profound cognitive and spiritual stances towards her contemporary universe at both the individual/subjective and social levels. Her drawings provide us with access to the traces borne by humanity itself during two fundamental historical crises which, we feel, should be revisited and understood more deeply if we are to plan our future more responsibly.”
Victoria Noorthoorn
“These drawings take you straight to a state of pain, using an astonishing economy of means: a sfumato here, a few lines there.”
Gabriela Rangel
“Driven by a deep knowledge of time’s precarious nature, with its unfair ability to cut lives tragically short, Matalon nevertheless remains invested in the deliberate unfolding of each moment.”
Ksenia M. Soboleva
“For Linda, the paper itself represents a metaphor for skin. Touching, caressing, altering, or entering into an intimate tactile communication with its substance is a way to evoke the act of healing or transformation. […] By working with paper and transforming it from a plain surface into a living entity through the application of waxy substances and graphite marks, the artist commences the most intimate possible relationship with a quintessential constituent of humanity’s physicality.”
Edward J. Sullivan
