Only Shadows Know

Black becomes both medium and metaphor: overlapping layers, impulsive gestures, and fragmented forms evoke that which vanishes before it can be remembered. In Only Shadows Know, Beñat Olaberria investigates the fragility of memory and the spaces where recollections dissolve between presence and absence, clarity and forgetting.

Inspired by soundscapes such as The Cure’s album Seventeen Seconds, the artist transforms the canvas into a visual narrative of slow disintegration. Throughout the exhibition, he constructs an emotional territory where time, loss, and the intangible intertwine. His process begins with impulse and improvisation: nervous marks, charcoal lines, thick paint, dirt, and liquid gestures gradually balance until an ambiguous and open image emerges.

Originally from Spain and based in London, Beñat Olaberria, trained in Fine Art at the City and Guilds of London Art School, cultivates an abstract practice that moves between control and impulse, between the visible and the intangible. His work, held in private collections across Europe, Asia, and America, has been presented in galleries and international art fairs in cities such as London, San Sebastián, Basel, Taipei, and Beijing.