The Bernier/Eliades Gallery is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Ximena Maldonado Sánchez in Athens, “cardón, carmín y ola”. The opening will take place on Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 19:00 to 21:00, in the presence of the artist. Ximena Maldonado Sánchez’s paintings explore the relationships between humans and ecosystems, focusing on the textures, colours, and rhythms of plants and mineral formations.

Her work is inspired by sensory experiences in the landscape and engages with themes of interconnection, ecological reciprocity, and the hidden dynamics within topography. Ximena Maldonado Sánchez’s artistic process begins with observing landscapes and evolves into a practice that engages the entire body while painting. Through a fluid weaving of figuration and abstraction, she conjures new and unfamiliar environments, navigating the realms where the two softly converge.

The exhibition title, “cardón, carmín y ola”, emerged from an ongoing dialogue between land and sea. Cardón evokes the cactus-like plant found in arid regions, especially in Latin America. Carmín connects to the red colour, but also to intensity, and ola refers to the swell of the sea and metaphorically to a wave of emotions and movements. Key elements of this exhibition include cacti and corals, a rich palette of deep reds and blues evoking the desert and the underwater, and organic forms reflecting the fluidity of the art-making process. In the artist’s work, water is ever-present in the landscapes, shaping the silhouettes of mountains and geological formations as well as defining the vegetation.

Born in 1999 in Irapuato, Mexico, Ximena Maldonado Sánchez earned her Master’s degree in Painting from ENSAV La Cambre in Brussels, Belgium, where she now lives and works. She hasexhibited internationally, with a solo show at Bernier/Eliades and group exhibitions in Belgium and France. Her practice has been supported by residencies at Fondation Moonens, La Napoule Art Foundation, and upcoming projects this year in Sicily and Finland. In 2023, she received the Laurent Moonens Prize.