PLANNED LANDSCAPES
Ikella Alonso
DATES & LOCATION
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
December 2021 – September 2022
S Gallery Warehouse
c/ Valdemorillo 26 C, 28925 Alcorcón, Madrid
In Planned Landscapes, Ikella Alonso pays a dual tribute to painting—through time and place. Merging satellite cartography with painterly tradition, he creates abstract aerial views of the birthplaces of artists he admires, coloring each composition with their distinct palettes.
From Málaga to Rotterdam, from Mondrian’s Amersfoort to Matisse’s Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Alonso constructs homages that are both conceptual and visual. The result is a series that explores the enduring dialogue between geography, memory, and the passage of time in painting.
FEATURED ARTWORKS
ABOUT THE ARTIST
IKELLA ALONSO
Madrid-based artist whose work merges aerial cartography and art history. Through vibrant, textured homages to masters like Van Gogh and Mondrian, he reimagines painting as a dialogue between geography, memory, and modern abstraction.
PRESS RELEASE
Ikella Alonso at Saisho’s First Exhibition
Madrid, 2021
On Saturday, November 20, Saisho organized a private visit to the exhibition Planned Landscapes by artist Ikella Alonso. The tour was guided by art critic and curator Miguel Cereceda, offering visitors the opportunity to delve deeper into the work of Alonso — a painter trained under one of Spain’s most prominent contemporary figures, Manolo Quejido.
Ikella Alonso is currently in a moment of full creative maturity. Since The Flight of Icarus, shown at Madrid’s O’Lumen gallery — a project that explored a compelling dialogue with the best traditions of painting — Alonso has secured his place as one of the leading figures of contemporary Spanish painting.
“If there is something inherent to painting, it is time,” the artist affirms. “I’m especially interested in how time flows through painting — the duration of the creative process, its physical phase, and the permanence and relevance of the work into the future.”
In Planned Landscapes, Alonso presents a double conceptual homage to painting. Set in the industrial space of Saisho’s warehouse, the exhibition features aerial-view landscapes reminiscent of cartography, each dedicated to a major painter he admires — portraying the landscapes of the places where these artists were born.
Tributes to Picasso, Mondrian, de Kooning, Matisse
Using satellite images of these cities and towns, Ikella creates geographic maps which he then paints using the palette and characteristic color schemes of each referenced artist. The result is a series of works that merge visual homage with topographic abstraction.
For example, Picasso’s tribute takes the form of a canvas titled Málaga, while Courbet’s is Ornans. Mondrian’s hometown of Amersfoort is honored through four canvases, and no fewer than fifteen pieces titled Rotterdam pay tribute to Willem De Kooning.
A homage to Henri Matisse recalls several of his works painted in Nice between 1916 and 1930. Here, the artist bases the composition on satellite imagery of Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Matisse’s birthplace, blending geography and art history into a single, abstract tribute.