Mahi Binebine and Miguel Galanda

MAHI BINEBINE (Morocco, 1959) AND MIGUEL GALANDA (Zaragoza, 1955)
"Landscape", 2002.
Mixed media on canvas.
Signed and dated on the back.
Provenance: Private collection M. Galanda.
Measurements; 101 x 82 cm (frame).
Mahi Binebine (Morocco, 1959; lives in Paris) and Miguel Galanda (Zaragoza, 1955) are two representative figures of the contemporary plastic creation that, from different geographical and cultural contexts, have developed trajectories characterized by a solid aesthetic coherence and a sustained presence in the international exhibition circuit.
Initially trained as a mathematician before devoting himself fully to the visual arts, Binebine has cultivated a pictorial and sculptural oeuvre marked by the exploration of the human condition, social tensions and the collective memory of the Maghreb. His plastic language is recognized by the use of intense chromatic ranges, the stylization of figures and an expressionist character that accentuates the psychological dimension of his compositions. Since the late 1980s, his work has been presented in Europe, the Arab world and the United States, with outstanding exhibitions in cities such as Paris, Marrakech, London and New York. In addition, his participation in various biennials and institutional exhibitions has consolidated his position as one of the most singular voices of contemporary Moroccan art.
For his part, Miguel Galanda, a Spanish artist born in Zaragoza in 1955, has developed a production centered on painting and graphics, characterized by formal research, the purification of visual structures and a constant interest in the relationship between space, color and gesture. His work is situated at the crossroads between lyrical abstraction and the poetics of the sign, giving rise to pieces in which the energy of the stroke coexists with balanced compositions and a strong symbolic charge. Galanda has exhibited regularly in galleries and art centers in Spain and other European countries, and his work has been included in group exhibitions dedicated to the renewal of Spanish abstraction in the late twentieth century.
Although coming from different cultural traditions, Binebine and Galanda coincide in an artistic practice that privileges expressive intensity and research on plastic language, establishing dialogues between memory, experience and form. Their exhibition trajectories, which include museums, galleries and institutional spaces in Europe, North Africa and America, evidence the international projection of both of them and the capacity of their works to be inserted in global aesthetic debates without losing the specificity of their cultural roots.