THE SPANISH Embassy in Jamaica and the National Gallery of Jamaica have combined forces to organise the simultaneous showing in Jamaica of two exciting exhibitions of contemporary Spanish art. This follows the successful showing last year of a modest survey exhibition of modern Spanish art, which aroused a lot of interest in Jamaica's art community and persistent requests to see more of contemporary Spanish art.

The exhibitions are: 'Skin of the Children of Gaia' and 'Curator Amador Gri' comprised of assemblage/sculpture installations by Maribel Doménech and some 50 photographs by Isabel Mu-oz and 'Ciria: Rare Paintings' in which the celebrated contemporary Spanish abstractionist presents 34 recent works. Both exhibitions open on Sunday October 12, and will close on December 2.

An Artist's and Curator's Forum will take place at the National Gallery on Monday October 14, at 2 p.m.

'Skin of the Children of Gaia' comprises photographs and sculptures by Spanish artists Isabel Mu-oz and Maribel Doménech. The exhibition at the National Gallery has been organised by the State Corporation for Spanish Cultural Action (SEACEX) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, along with the collaboration of the National Gallery of Jamaica and the Spanish Embassy in Jamaica.

Exhibition 'Curator Amador Gri' offers two radically different perspectives of the human body. On the one hand, Isabel Mu-oz acts as a witness of reality, reflecting her passion for the body, its movement and physical dimensions in her photographs. Isabel's eye is anything but aseptic. She uses her own conception of beauty, one that projects the serene and sublime possibilities and movements of the human body.

For this project, she has selected 50 photographs of the sacrificial keloid tattoos and body paint of Ethiopian tribes. The collection closes with her latest platinum-colour prints.

Assemblage sculptures

On the other hand, Maribel Doménech examines the dress as a wrapping for the body, a theme that has always interested her and is reflected in her assemblage sculptures - they represent "second skins." Concealment, sound, light, introspection, the visible and invisible, and the space surrounding the body are the fundamental themes of her work.

The featured dresses form part of an unfinished trilogy on a "time-woven" period, in which the past, present and future are allegorically transformed into enormous, heavy dresses for the female, that cover and envelop an imaginary body.

The dresses either extend for luminous distances or create impassable barriers. In this exhibition, Maribel Doménech displays a white dress "as a room filled with light," and a black dress "to observe the world at a certain distance".

Both artists are expected attend the opening.