Argentinian Art
Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires: Nazarena Miranda's Debut at POPA Gallery
October 29, 2026 | nadiaevangelina
In an era where contemporary painting so often surrenders to slick digital finishes or recycled conceptual clichés, Nazarena Miranda’s solo debut, “Fundaremos Buenos Aires” (We Will Found Buenos Aires), arrives at POPA Gallery like a raw, necessary jolt. Curated with remarkable spatial sensitivity by Naiara Fiuza Cominguez, the exhibition feels less like a traditional gallery show and more like a feverish, ritualistic excavation of identity, geography, and myth.
Miranda eschews conventional artifice, choosing instead to engage in a visceral dialogue with her materials. The works—spanning traditional stretched canvases and suspended bedsheets—are heavily worked with oil paint, coarse sand, and the destructive, transformative element of fire. By introducing bedsheets into the exhibition space, Miranda immediately grounds the narrative in the deeply intimate and domestic realm. Yet, far from remaining cozy, these textiles become battlegrounds. The scorch marks and charring act as physical scars, transforming cheap, everyday cotton into relic-like surfaces that evoke forgotten histories and fragile domestic sanctuaries.
There is a striking tension between creation and ruin throughout the room. Miranda’s thick, tactile application of oil paint, combined with gritty sand, endows the works with a geological weight, as if the images were scraped directly from the muddy banks of the Río de la Plata. The sheer materiality of the show demands a physical reaction from the viewer; you can almost smell the soot and feel the grain of the earth under your fingernails. The violent intervention of fire does not merely destroy—it seals, shapes, and elevates the composition, leaving behind rich monochromatic textures and haunting, ghostly silhouettes.
Fiuza Cominguez’s curatorial vision allows these loaded objects room to breathe, creating a compelling rhythm between the weight of the canvases and the ethereal, translucent presence of the scorched sheets hanging in space. The dialogue between the works feels urgent and cohesive, questioning what it truly means to "found" or "re-found" a city like Buenos Aires—a metropolis built on layers of collective memory, personal trauma, and continuous reinvention.
“Fundaremos Buenos Aires” is a fierce, uncompromising statement from a young painter who clearly respects the weight of history while fearlessly burning down its rigid structures. Miranda does not merely depict a city; she reconstructs one out of dust, pigment, and ash. It is an impressive, deeply moving debut that positions Nazarena Miranda as a vital new voice in Argentine contemporary art.
Miranda eschews conventional artifice, choosing instead to engage in a visceral dialogue with her materials. The works—spanning traditional stretched canvases and suspended bedsheets—are heavily worked with oil paint, coarse sand, and the destructive, transformative element of fire. By introducing bedsheets into the exhibition space, Miranda immediately grounds the narrative in the deeply intimate and domestic realm. Yet, far from remaining cozy, these textiles become battlegrounds. The scorch marks and charring act as physical scars, transforming cheap, everyday cotton into relic-like surfaces that evoke forgotten histories and fragile domestic sanctuaries.
There is a striking tension between creation and ruin throughout the room. Miranda’s thick, tactile application of oil paint, combined with gritty sand, endows the works with a geological weight, as if the images were scraped directly from the muddy banks of the Río de la Plata. The sheer materiality of the show demands a physical reaction from the viewer; you can almost smell the soot and feel the grain of the earth under your fingernails. The violent intervention of fire does not merely destroy—it seals, shapes, and elevates the composition, leaving behind rich monochromatic textures and haunting, ghostly silhouettes.
Fiuza Cominguez’s curatorial vision allows these loaded objects room to breathe, creating a compelling rhythm between the weight of the canvases and the ethereal, translucent presence of the scorched sheets hanging in space. The dialogue between the works feels urgent and cohesive, questioning what it truly means to "found" or "re-found" a city like Buenos Aires—a metropolis built on layers of collective memory, personal trauma, and continuous reinvention.
“Fundaremos Buenos Aires” is a fierce, uncompromising statement from a young painter who clearly respects the weight of history while fearlessly burning down its rigid structures. Miranda does not merely depict a city; she reconstructs one out of dust, pigment, and ash. It is an impressive, deeply moving debut that positions Nazarena Miranda as a vital new voice in Argentine contemporary art.
“Fundaremos Buenos Aires”
Location: National Museum of Fine Arts, Av. del Libertador 1473, CABA, Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Opening Date: 17th October 2026
End Date: 14th November 2026
Working hours: Monday-Saturday: 10am- 7pm
Official website:
Artist:
