This series of works delves into dissident and underrepresented personalities, with Spanish artist Maruja Mallo (1902-1995) and Franco-American singer and actress Josephine Baker (1906-1975) as central figures. Through mobiles, Redondo explores the idea of “abstract portraits,” referencing these two figures directly only in the titles of the works. What is visible in the exhibition space is their performative and disruptive bodies, materializing indirectly through traces and remnants of these characters. On the walls, a series of small paintings alludes to a house designed for Baker by architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933), a project that was never realized

Both Mallo and Baker challenged the social, cultural, and racial conventions of their time, standing out as icons of the 20th-century avant-garde. They fought for gender equality and women’s rights, facing rejection and obstacles, paving the way for future generations. Migration was a central theme in their lives: Baker left the United States to escape racial segregation and settled in France, while Mallo, after the Spanish Civil War, exiled herself in Argentina, returning to Spain only in the 1960s.

Maruja Mallo is evoked in two mobiles, in which an orchid and organic objects, such as leaves and shells – symbols of fertility and protection – suggest the fantastic and ethereal universe depicted in her paintings. Mallo is also remembered in hanging textile sculptures, where some of these organic objects are printed on old blankets with geometric patterns.

The mobiles referencing Josephine Baker are composed of extravagant feathers and tropical fruits, among other objects, evoking her dance movements and subversive posture, which appropriated the exotic stereotype to challenge the conservative views of the time.

On the walls, a series of small paintings refers to the “Baker House,” an unrealized project by architect Loos, with its black-and-white marble façade, almost entirely devoid of intimate spaces; a dysfunctional home, an architectural projection by Loos onto the image of Baker. The paintings in the exhibition evoke the house gradually darkening, almost to the point of disappearance, functioning as frames of a film that capture the movement of the day through the façade.

Photo: Roberto Ruiz