Alejandro Cardenas - ARACHNE

Almine Rech New York is pleased to present 'ARACHNE,' Alejandro Cardenas' seventh solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from May 8 to June 13, 2026. This exhibition presents a new body of work, conceived and painted in the city of Madrid, Spain. In 'ARACHNE' Cardenas returns to his work’s most elemental aspect, which is drawing. From the drawings arrive scenes, depicted in oil on linen, of figures dancing, embracing and exploring their millennium-old abandoned city. Surrounding the paintings is a grid hand-drawn in pencil on the gallery walls with ephemeral drawings that reflect aspects of the world within the paintings. Living in Madrid, a city known for producing and holding some of the most substantial and influential paintings from the last millennium, has freed Cardenas from the constraints of the artist’s identity within the contemporary context and, in turn, has made this show a deeply personal one. Cardenas is known for his distinct visual language. Using a compositional style grounded in geometry and color, his work depicts a surreal, post-human world where nature and living forms coexist. Through his nearly-human figures, faceless, yet able to convey powerful emotions, the Chilean artist explores themes of humanity and psychology.