The Tenerife-based sculptor Óscar Deluis opened the exhibition «Ausencia Activa» on Thursday at the Mapfre Canarias Foundation, where he brings together works from his new phase of artistic exploration in which he reflects on emptiness and its complexity, exploring its capacity to structure «a form, generate a space and even become the starting point for an idea».
The exhibition, which can be visited free of charge until 8 January at the gallery in La Laguna, focuses on the relationships between matter, emptiness, balance, movement and space, with a conceptual twist: what is known as ‚reverse thinking‘, which begins by asking what happens when the process of constructing form changes direction.
The artist, who hails from Icod de los Vinos, thus seeks to break away from a concept deeply rooted in his previous works, the idea that «the absence of matter was an active element in his sculptures», where the form of his sculptures was defined as much by what was present as by what was missing, in order to move into new territory in which «emptiness is reimagined from its opposite».
Óscar Deluis: Thinking outside the box changes the creative process
«What happens if, instead of taking away, we add? What happens if, instead of breaking things up, we put them back together?»
Through these questions, Deluis charts a course towards opening up new artistic possibilities, where the tension between fullness and emptiness is no longer considered solely in terms of absence, but also incorporates volume and density as tools capable of transforming space.
The exhibition thus invites us to reflect on the very act of creation: building, destroying, reconstructing and altering perception, where sculpture emerges as a realm in constant transformation, and matter and void maintain a relationship characterised by interdependence and tension.
The result is a series of sculptures that establish an open relationship with their viewers and with the exhibition space, inviting the viewer to focus their attention not only on the material from which each piece is made, but also on the gaps, tensions and spaces created around them.
Metalwork has shaped Deluis' journey towards abstract sculpture
Deluis, a self-taught sculptor, has had a close connection with metal since childhood through the family business, where he acquired technical knowledge of working with the material; this eventually became the foundation of his artistic language, which, since 2018, has evolved into abstract work.
Her career includes solo exhibitions such as ‚Acróbata‘, held in 2021 at the Sala de Arte García Sanabria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife; ‚Materia, forma y espacio‘, at the Drago Park Interpretation Centre in Icod de los Vinos in 2022; and ‚Materia Seductora‘, at the Castillo San Miguel Museum in Garachico in 2023.
In recent years, he has taken part in various group exhibitions and art competitions, including the Hybrid Art Fair 2025 in Madrid, the María Belén Morales Sculpture Prize organised by the University of La Laguna, and the Isora National Art Prize, as well as having been shortlisted for the Manolo Millares CajaCanarias Prize for the Visual Arts.
«Exhibition on Tenerife is free of charge until 8 January»
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