BARCELONA.- The Joan Miró Foundation presents Shuffle, an installation by Abigail Lazkoz forming part of The 24 Steps programme dedicated to the figure of Joan Miró and his leading role in contemporary art, to mark the 25th anniversary of his death on 25 December 1983.

Abigail Lazkoz (Bilbao, 1972) normally works on the walls of the exhibition space, filling them with drawings of scenes of everyday life. They are narratives that have much to do with the world of comic strips and the idea of sequence, and with a technique that explores the expressive possibilities of black lines and patches on a white background, and the combination of subtle forms and Barque compositions that range between horror and humour.

The title of the installation – Shuffle – refers to the fact that the artist has gone through all her sketchbooks and preliminary drawings to present a selection for the public, who are thus able to review the development of her art. The drawings are of different sizes and are sketches for works that were often never completed, sometimes because she had turned the page, at other times because new projects claimed all her available time and attention.

The origin of this installation was the artist’s visit to the Foundation’s archives, where she was able to see Joan Miró’s sketchbooks and preparatory drawings, and was surprised to recognise in them many of her own methods of working, such as producing series or preparing drafts of the compositions of her works. Lazkoz, who is currently preparing a book containing a compilation of her last nine years’ work, confesses that this discovery has helped her look at her art from a new perspective and review the outstanding ideas and projects she has not been able to carry out, as well as the process of creation.

With Shuffle, Abigail Lazkoz invites the viewer to approach her preliminary ideas; to discover the work that often never sees the light of day but that certainly forms an important part of the artist’s career and defines her creative output.