The Painter on the Road, the title of Irene Grau’s (Valencia, 1986) doctoral thesis in Fine Arts, encapsulates a central theme in her work: that of a painter who leaves the studio to travel through the countryside, viewing the landscape not as a subject for representation, but as a journey and an experience. Her practice engages with the tradition of radical monochrome painting, land art and conceptual art, exploring monochrome as a means of focusing attention on and perceiving the landscape.

As regards A punto de ser nada [About to be Nothing], an installation comprising thirteen paintings and nine photographs, it comes from a three-year research project in the mining regions of León and Asturias, including visits to open-cast mines, tunnels and sites such as La Casa del Humo [The House of Smoke] in Lois. The canvases, created using Cerredo coal, Fabero anthracite, spoil heap material and carbonised smoke, bridge different eras: from the Stephanian Carboniferous period to contemporary combustion, by which that very same material is transformed into smoke. Through monochrome, the artist brings to light a multifaceted darkness: that of the subsoil, that of extractive work, and that of an era marked by overlapping climate crises.