Juana Subercaseaux

BAG OF CELLS
March 20, 2025

In this new body of work, Subercaseaux embraces an organic approach to painting, characteristic to her practice, eschewing the depiction of concrete objects or figures. Instead, she immerses herself in the fluidity of form, exploring the interplay of energies and the silent intimate exchanges that unfold both within her canvases and in the natural world itself.

Drawing inspiration from nature and the intricate science of cells, membranes, and drifting bodies, Subercaseaux’s paintings become vessels—echoing the very structures they evoke. Her works conjure the sensation of peering through a microscope, revealing an imagined universe of movement and transformation, as though capturing the moment a chemist unveils a world unseen to the naked human eye. Building upon this initial point of reference, the artist immerses herself in a deeply personal process of exploration—absorbing, interpreting, and transforming scientific inspiration into a work of art.

The exhibition’s title, Bag of Cells, taken from a poem by Canadian writer and poet Anne Carson, resonates with Subercaseaux’s artistic ethos. The organic forms seem almost alive, as if caught mid-motion—expanding, contracting, and colliding within the carefully composed spaces the artist creates. Their fluidity suggests a delicate balance between chaos and order, an intricate dance contained within the boundaries of the canvas. In this sense, the title not only reflects the dynamic nature of Subercaseaux’s work, but also reimagines the canvas itself as a vessel—a bag of sorts—holding these restless, ever-shifting forms. Like living cells suspended in an unseen current, they evolve, transform, and quietly communicate, inviting the viewer to witness the silent pulse of their unfolding existence.

Nature remains the cornerstone of her practice, a wellspring of both scientific inquiry and mystical reflection. While this exhibition delves into the analytical lens of science, her work simultaneously embraces the more elusive, poetic and intimate dimensions of the natural world as well.

As she notes in an interview with The Artistic Dispatch (2024): "a flower hallucinates, water is a portal, the wind slows down, a reflection is an entity, movement freezes, the sun unfolds." These observations manifest on her canvases, where natural elements are distilled into abstract expressions—imbued with both the familiarity and wonder of the world she interprets. The natural world, as perceived by the human eye, is never merely what it appears to be. Each entity carries a story, a silent symphony of character and meaning, its essence and story unfolding before us in quiet grandeur—yet we, lost in our own distractions, seldom pause to see and take notice.

- Vittoria Beltrame
London / March 2025