María Magán, 2022, Mixed Media

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This wall-mounted mixed media work combines oil painting, floral textile, and color-saturated wood in a vivid visual assemblage that invites … Read more This wall-mounted mixed media work combines oil painting, floral textile, and color-saturated wood in a vivid visual assemblage that invites close inspection. Oruga is part of María Magán’s surrealist series Ni antes ni después, and centers on the magnified underside of a caterpillar rendered in lush oil detail on canvas. The hyperreal insect body—intimate, grotesque, and strangely tender—sits beneath a pink painted panel and next to a contrasting floral textile insert, creating a tension between natural form, domestic décor, and narrative layering. The work’s structure blends theatrical set design and scientific illustration, echoing Magán’s conceptual interest in the unstable boundary between the rational and the irrational. Inspired by her re-reading of Alice in Wonderland, the series explores altered perception and dream logic, where scale becomes disoriented and beauty resides in the abject. The caterpillar, enlarged and almost mythic, suggests a metamorphic threshold—at once bodily and symbolic, vulnerable and defiant. Technically, the piece juxtaposes surface treatments and textures: the smooth matte of painted wood, the detailed brushwork of the insect’s folds and hairs, and the nostalgic softness of the floral fabric. Each component is mounted with precise care on a wooden base that brings sculptural volume to the composition. Oruga exemplifies Magán’s method of constructing layered image-objects that refuse singular meaning, proposing instead a multisensory meditation on the bizarre, the microscopic, and the decorative. Medium: Oil on canvas, wood, textile Dimensions: 96 x 96 x 5 cm Dimensions (packaged): 105 x 105 x 11 cm (estimated) Weight: 5 kg Series: Ni antes ni después Condition: New – Original work, signed by the artist Installation: Wall-mounted This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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