César Fernández Arias. Laboratorio de creación

Centro de Arte Complutense (C arte C) hosts from 8 October to 13 December what is the largest retrospective dedicated to date to one of the most personal creators in contemporary Spanish art, César Fernández Arias (Caracas, 1952 – Madrid, 2023).

Organised by the Complutense University of Madrid together with the artist's family, the exhibition brings together 247 works spanning nearly five decades of production, allowing visitors to discover the creative universe of this author who made experimentation a way of understanding art. The exhibition is also the result of three years of research and cataloguing of the artist's legacy. Since 2023, the family has inventoried more than 1,450 works preserved in his studio.

Curated by Almudena Armenta Deu and Mateo Ray Fernández Armenta, with coordination by Mauricio Fernández Armenta, the artist's children, the exhibition brings together paintings, sculptures, drawings, illustrations, collages, objects, publications and editorial projects that show the public how a single idea could be transformed into a sculpture, a cartoon, a book or a workshop for boys and girls.

César Fernández Arias, sculptor, painter, illustrator, draughtsman and educator, created a unique language where contemporary art, illustration, architecture, design, humour and popular culture coexisted. He worked with elements such as cardboard, cement, wood, metal or resin with complete creative freedom, turning everyday materials into tools for creation and building an imaginary recognisable for its irony, its visual strength and its capacity to discover new possibilities.

This exhibition highlights an essential facet of César Fernández Arias's career: art education. Over the course of more than four decades, he promoted workshops for children, young people and adults in institutions such as the Círculo de Bellas Artes, La Casa Encendida, Matadero Madrid and the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, defending a way of learning based on