Ignacio Uriarte: Radiance
i8 Gallery is pleased to present Radiance, a solo exhibition of new works by Ignacio Uriarte, on view from 3 April until 10 May 2025. The show is the artist’s fourth solo presentation with i8. Comprising typewritten and hand-drawn works on paper, as well as a sculptural wall installation, the works share a careful and diligent quality rooted in their simple, geometric forms and reflect the artist’s continued exploration of process and material.
Throughout his practice, Uriarte works within self-imposed boundaries, limiting his process to the materials and methods found within stereotypical office spaces until the early 1990s. While parsimonious in method, Uriarte’s compositions are rich in detail. Working with pen and paper, the artist creates geometric constructions and layers the ink to suggest depth and shadows, which produces detailed rhythm and movement within his compositions.
As exemplified in the drawings in the exhibition, automatic, reiterated gestures are a central feature of Uriarte’s work. Alluding to serial representations by artists such as Carl André, Richard Long, and Sol LeWitt, Uriarte methodically traces geometric forms to create systems through repeated motifs. Throughout the exhibition, Uriarte presents various ways of arranging and interrupting lines and circles, using a system of looping, interlacing, and splicing. In Stripe Circle (2024), an optical interference occurs, disrupting the gaze whilst conjuring a plethora of images and symbols. The artist repeats his motif in the wall sculpture Circle Shift (2025), where cut rulers disrupt everyday thinking patterns and rearrange the space.
Expanding subject matter typically associated with mundane, undirected office scribbles, Uriarte's drawings transcend their humble inspiration, touching on celestial bodies and interdimensional passages. Reflecting on the work Four Loops (2024), Uriarte says, "it's almost like a magical moment, changing colour as the loops go under the bridge; they are transformed by an invisible force." Uriarte continues to pursue movement in the series of typewriter drawings titled Black & Red Diagonal Moirée 2 (2025) by regulating the angle between two layers of repeated slashes, creating a wavelike quality, reminiscent of the interference on old televisions or light shining on seawater. Throughout his typewriter drawings, the artist experiments with the signifiers of each typewriter symbol.
Uriarte's earthy palette in these new works results from years of experimenting with the red, blue, green and black, which were most common colours found within offices. Now, the artist has widened his array to include warmer tones, with these more complex tones created by mixing permanent markers and office pen ink for a hybrid colour.
