Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? This is the riddle that Snow White’s stepmother continually asks the magic mirror in the well-known children’s story. Rubén Torres Llorca transposes this constant and incisive questioning to the art world, specifically to the mercantile relations of the contemporary scene or to what the artist has called “the dictatorship of the art market.” The work points to the immense complexity of artist-collector relationships, considering the power of the latter entity in the legitimacy and sustainability of an artist’s career. There are multiple questions that this link raises, especially for the artist, in a system in which access to these “actors” is frequently mediated, convoluted, and uncertain.

The innocent nature of the children’s story that Torres Llorca cites prevails in this work through the two children’s figures who face their own reflections, and the problematic question that it formulates.

Part of Volume I, Torres Llorca’s work explores power relations, ideology, daily life, spirituality, and its material and graphic expressions, as well as the art world from the artist’s perspective and its relationship with collecting, the market, and the art system in general. His pieces often incorporate texts in English and Spanish. The textual element is a fundamental component of their meaning.