El Espacio 23 2025 Exhibition: Mirror of the Mind

Mirror of the Mind is inspired by the entangled and inseparable relationship between the physical and the emotional aspects of the body. This exhibition explores how artists utilize figuration and portraiture to explore the complexities of the human condition. Through a variety of media, including photographic documentation, painting, sculpture and video, artists reference the body as a vessel that experiences, documents, participates and transforms throughout life’s journey. The duality of the body, its materiality and immateriality, becomes a visual territory where dynamics of representation ranging from communities to individuals are addressed, redefining traditional notions of the figure in contemporary art.

The exhibition brings together over 120 artists from different generations and contexts whose works delve into what makes up the human experience throughout history: from the power of perception, the weight of trauma, the possibilities for healing, the space for introspection, the sense of belonging and the effects on the flesh.

Mirror of the Mind includes large-scale works by Anselm Kiefer, Meleko Mokgosi, A. R. Penck, and Reginald O’Neal; a multichannel video installation by Shirin Neshat; historic works by Alice Neel, Marta Minujín, Liliana Maresca, Vera Chávez Barcellos, Eduardo Arroyo, Nancy Spero, Antoni Tàpies, Luis Felipe Noé, and Larry Rivers; as well as works by Cindy Sherman, Yael Bartana, Carrie Mae Weems, River Claure, Ayana Jackson, Deana Lawson, and Carlos Martiel, among many others.