Group Shoe 4

Curated by Mario Ayala

Group Shoe 4 is a group exhibition curated by Mario Ayala, featuring works by 63 artists from his community of friends and collaborators. It is the fourth edition Group Shoe exhibition series, the first outside the United States, and features artists working in a variety of media, scales and at different points in their lives.

The origin of the Group Shoe concept does not come from a purely conceptual idea, but from an informal group exhibition with a celebratory character. Family and friends are the focus of this exhibition that attempts to put in dialogue and celebrate various people who come together with their art in the same room. All the artists present in the Shoe have in common the same temporal space. Time is not understood as a linear space, but as a circle, with a center full of connections, independent issues and forms that move away from a definitive beginning and end. Understanding time in a linear way condemns us to see it as an arrow towards a naturalized system of causes and effects that prevents us from transiting other temporal realities. This system permeates our culture and is neither right nor wrong; it simply invites the viewer to transit the pieces in this exhibition without a closed time frame.

On the other hand, the curator himself doesn't seek an explicit explanation of the connections between the artists. As human beings, we must experience what happens in the body in an absolute present; for this reason, he invites us to make all the interpretations and connections that the spectator wishes, be they formal, conceptual or emotional, without having a basis imposed by himself.

Finally, “This group of shoes” lands in Madrid with a transgressive, free and celebratory proposal to innovate within the Spanish art scene. Originality stands out in the media, forms and concepts of each piece and invites us to reflect on the variety of relationships throughout the lives of each single person. People meeting people and making memories is what Group Shoe 4 is all about.

Participating Artists:

Mia Carucci, Alfonso Gonzalez Jr., Sonya Sombreuil, Guadalupe Rosales, Paul Flores, Henry Gunderson, Ignacio Gatica, Marisa Takai, Lauren Rose D’Amato, Pedro Alejandro Verdin, Francesco Igory Deiana, rafa esparza, Jonas Wood, Alberto Cuadros, Raffi Kalenderian, Savannah Claudia Levin, Alake Shilling, Henry Fey, Carley Gmitro, Mia Scarpa, Coulter Jacobs, Brendan Lynch, Marcel Alcalá, Nathan Harris, Sharif Farrag, Adam Alessi, Ryan Preciado, Grace Horan, Ida Badal, Aaron Jupin, Shizu Salamando, Tamara Santibanez, Jaime Muñoz, Barry McGee, Alicia McCarthy, Sahar Khoury, Lizette Hernández, Milagro Ayala, Ade Ogunmowo, Mr. Wash, Timo Fahler, CHITO, Noah Cohen, Grant Guttierez, Roman Kovalm Ansya, Maria Mae, Gabriela Ruiz, Michael Alvarez, Jack Alving, Peter Sutherland, Maia Ruth Lee, Eddie Salinas, Diana Alvarado, Alex Chaves, Chris Lux, Call DeWitt, Colton Callahan, Sayre Gomez, Greg Ito, Ozzie Juarez, Karla Canesco, Mario Ayala