Xippas Punta del Este presents OSCILLATIONS, a solo exhibition by the renowned artist Pablo Reinoso.
The exhibition brings together a selection of works from his recent production that continue his reflection on central notions within his artistic practice: the relationship between matter — form, function, and spatiality — the relationship between expressions — energy and matter — as well as our relationship between the living and the inert.
Within this group of sculptures, drawn from diverse series such as the “Spaghetti Benches,” the “Frames,” “Fire,” the “Trees,” and the “Harmony Chairs,” the artist multiplies materials and formal solutions. The works engage in dialogue with one another and share a common language, while articulating distinct narratives. Wood and metal, central to his production, unfold here through multiple configurations: in the bench colonized by intertwined branches in Retorno vegetal, or in the vegetal expansions of Late talk left; as tongues of fire consuming themselves in Fire; in the sinuous geometries of the Desenmarcado series; or in the “Trees,” where wood becomes bronze while preserving the expressive memory of its previous existence.
Through these multiple movements, the works trace the trajectory of the artist’s thought. Working from wood or metal, Pablo Reinoso explores their full range of possibilities, interrogates, extends, and transforms matter to open pathways toward new formal and conceptual territories. This approach also extends to objects. While one may recognize chairs, benches, or frames in these sculptures, they constantly transcend their function to activate a network of relationships that exceeds the logic of utility. The artist thus questions the object as a system: his works inscribe themselves within a tradition and surpass it, flourishing in the multiplicity of interactions they generate, in the physical and symbolic displacements they provoke.
Retorno vegetal is exemplary in this regard. This wooden seat is entirely enveloped by branches that grow, intertwine, and expand into space. The object is thus colonized, subjected to the power of vegetal life: the wood emancipates itself from the slats and the bench’s structure to recover its organic movement — a growth previously interrupted. Belonging to the “Spaghetti Benches” series, central to the artist’s production, this work fully embodies its meaning. Often presented in natural or urban environments, these sculptures constitute above all a tribute to the “intelligence of plants,” following the formulation of Stefano Mancuso. The curves traced by the artist in wood or metal unfold like the many paths taken by the natural world to ensure its growth and survival.
In the “Trees,” the artist extends this reflection, this time working from fallen tree branches recovered from the undergrowth. These are subsequently molded and cast in bronze, forming the trunk of sculptures in which steel loops outline the tree’s canopy: these metallic lines, composed of interlacings and voids, suggest an abstract and open canopy. The artist thus traces a new symbolic space onto which vegetal life is projected: he imagines an afterlife, an extension of organic life in which the tree continues its existence.
The relationship to space is also fundamental in Pablo Reinoso’s work, as it is our perception and experience that are altered when encountering his sculptures. With the Desenmarcado series, wood inscribes itself within a geometric frame only to immediately escape it. Here, the artist turns toward a fundamental object in the history of art and perception. He preserves its structural function only to ultimately transcend it, carving curves that detach from the frames, propagate into space, and trace expansive movements that once again recall the growth of branches and roots. The work Inner Harmonycontinues in this vein. The backrest of the seat rises vertically beyond any structural necessity and then curves, once again following the undulations of the natural world. These sculptures address the viewer directly, subtly destabilizing them.
Taken as a whole, the works evoke life that grows and pulses, but also decline — the end of a cycle that opens onto another. It is between these polarities that the works unfold, as suggested by the sculpture Fire. Here, wood becomes flame: the fire that burns is the very image of its own end. Our relationship with the natural world is omnipresent in these sculptures, which testify both to the force of life and to the exhaustion of resources. In this context, Pablo Reinoso suggests possibilities, alternative paths, while underscoring the bonds that unite all forms of life. His works propose balances that they immediately call into question: between tensions and resolutions, they trace alternating movements that unequivocally affirm the power of life.
Virna Gvero
