Artist Spotlight - Mario Molins — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography

Mario Molins (1983, Binéfar, Huesca, Spain), holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, along with doctoral studies. He is a multidisciplinary artist with an inquisitive spirit and a deep connection to Nature. His extensive exhibition career, along with multiple mentions and awards, includes the 2016 recognition by the Association of Art Critics of Aragón as the best Aragonese artist under 35 years old.

Hidden Darkness / 2019 / Direct carving of cypress wood and stained with Chinese ink / 143 x 130 x 45 cm

His work is part of numerous public and private collections, such as "Catharsis", a monumental piece located in the Parque Grande José Antonio Labordeta in Zaragoza, the 2023 intervention at the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park as part of the Ballarte Festival, and the recent 2024 stone intervention in Manresa, crafted from the local terrain.

Inner Language, Outer Skin / 2019 / Direct walnut carving / 160 x 35 x 20 cm - 70 x 20 x 30 cm - 160 x 34 x 19 cm

He has also published two poetry books: "La corteza del corazón" (Editorial Círculo Rojo, 2020) and "Con el corazón en la mano" (Aliar Ediciones, 2023). To uncover the origins and essence of his work, one only needs to watch his moving video on YouTube, My Grandfather is an olive tree.

Black Tears - 2022 / Direct carving and staining of cypress - 133 x 32 x 30 cm

Artist Statement

"Each piece is also an inherited gesture, like the hands of my grandfather who taught me to prune: to look at the land with respect, to contemplate the landscape as one listens to the stories the earth holds in silence."

The Gravity of Gravity / 2023 / Direct carving, turning, assemblage, and staining of cypress and beech woods - 30 x 26 x 27 cm - 40 x 43 x 23 cm

Throughout my artistic journey, I have cultivated an intimate dialogue with the materials and the territory that surrounds me, as if conversing with the whispers of trees or listening to the tides of time. My work is a forest rooted in the fertile soil of nature, a living organism that breathes through the texture of wood, the fiber of paper, and the echoes of the environment. In each piece, the material becomes a chronicle, intertwining stories of time and transformation, like rings in a tree trunk that preserve the memory of what has been lived.

Another Cavern / 2024 / Direct carving, turning, assemblage, and staining of olive and beech wood / 70 x 40 x 30 cm

Timothy Morton reminds us that “all art is ecological as it connects the human with the more-than-human, weaving life into its infinite web of interrelations.” Inspired by this idea, my practice is a reconciliation with impermanence, a search to inhabit the beauty that emerges from the ephemeral. In my sculptures and prints, the material ceases to be a passive object and transforms into an inner landscape that dialogues with silence and emptiness—not as an absence, but as a space full of meaning, a breath within the dense foliage of existence.

The Curve of Our Horizon / 2024 / Direct carving, turning, assemblage, and staining of oak and beech wood / 320 x 35 x 35 cm

My works explore the tension between the visible and the invisible, between the finite and the infinite. Like branches stretching toward the light or roots embracing the earth, they invite the viewer to pause and reflect, to rediscover the magic of the essential, and to reconnect with the flow of time and the profound interdependence we share with our environment.

Winter Haiku / 2022 / Collage of wood splinters on panel / 100 x 100 x 10 cm

I believe in the power of imperfection, in the cracks and textures that reveal the stories of what has been lived. Each piece is a bridge between the internal and the external, a map drawn by hands that become mediators between humanity and the land we inhabit. My portfolio is a forest of moments, a tribute to the trees that teach us the oldest lesson: to be as steadfast as their roots, as flexible as their branches, and as open as they are to the winds of the unknown.

Haiku at the Beginning of Spring / 2022 / Collage of wood splinters on panel and Chinese ink / 100 x 100 x 10 cm

This work, like art itself, is a testament to the eternal and ever-changing bond between matter, time, and our humanity. It is, in essence, an archive of gestures and transformations that remind us of our belonging to an infinite web of life.

http://mariomolins.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariomolinsescultor/
Youtube: https://youtu.be/Yw_QcCPiyRk?si=Mafq1bA9fPKnN7gD
https://youtu.be/FqoI4q0_2Vg?si=wN2udN-8e0CGBHok