Anatomia di una Natura Morta

10 & zero uno is proud to present ANATOMIA DI UNA NATURA MORTA, the first solo exhibition in Venice by Spanish artist Avelino Sala, curated by Miguel Mallol. The exhibition, opening during the second weekend of the Mostra del Cinema in Venice, will be held in the gallery’s space near the Giardini of the Biennale, from September 6 to October 12, 2025, and will be inaugurated on Friday, September 5, from 6:30 to 9 PM.

Avelino Sala’s exhibition project, conceived specifically for 10 & zero uno gallery, transforms the space into a living element of the composition. With a theatrical language and brushstrokes that evoke Baroque still lifes, the artist proposes a dialogue between past and present, bringing into contemporary focus the soul of the former butcher shop that now houses the gallery.

Inspired by Marc Augé’s book Non-Places, the exhibition explores transit spaces devoid of identity, in contrast to those places that preserve stories, experiences, and traces of time. The geometric whiteness of the gallery’s white cube—so similar to many other anonymous spaces—becomes a ground for metamorphosis. In the case of ANATOMIA DI UNA NATURA MORTA, the transformation brings the past back to life through a contemporary deconstruction of elements, orchestrated by Avelino Sala’s works.
Like ripples in water, the exhibition’s narrative expands to include the Castello neighborhood and the entire city of Venice. It reflects on what it means to live the city from within or to observe it as a visitor, and on the silent resistance of those who inhabit it in order not to lose its identity as a place.

The three works by Sala engage in a dialogue with one another, forming connections with the space, the city, and the idea of an everyday life under threat. The proposal follows a path already deeply rooted in the artist’s conceptual journey: a metaphorical play with everyday objects, whose meanings he evokes, alters, and subtly re-presents—sometimes incisively, but never arbitrarily. This is not the first time the artist has explored the theme of the “still life” to unsettle the viewer through a language that is explicit, immediate, didactic, and underpinned by a tone of critique. Sala himself states: “The artist has no answers to current problems: he simply observes what exists and returns it in an unusual form.” Shields, baseball bats, logs, neon lights, and stones are just a few of the decontextualized elements he has previously used to raise questions and prompt reflection.
“Naturaleza muerta con cuchillos”. The butcher’s knives—tools of a traditional trade, weapons that cut, divide, dissect—represent here an object with multiple layers of meaning. The material they are made of, Murano glass, is a tribute to artisanal craftsmanship, but in this dual reading also to the commercialization and mercantile capitalism that has historically marked a city now “for sale,” one that is rapidly losing its essence as a living urban core despite ongoing attempts at resistance.
“If memory is taken—meaning a survival of past images—these images will constantly blend with our perception of the present and may even replace it.”
“Naturaleza muerta con plumas: cabezas y góndolas”. Feathers have been a recurring material resource in Sala’s work, used to represent, through an ethereal element—subtle and light—specific cues for much broader reflections. Delving deeper into this initial material reading, one reaches the contrast between the images presented: a symbiosis of past and present, linked by the idea of everyday life, present in both, albeit within different realities.
The city of Venice, with its worldly and local character, has been portrayed for centuries by costumbrista painters to depict traditions and customs of popular realism known worldwide. Its canals and palaces still fill canvases and remain the subject of countless photographs. Yet this poetic dimension conceals a different reality, where the squares once filled with children playing are now occupied by restaurant tables, and local shops and market stalls are vanishing, increasingly replaced by supermarkets and souvenir stands. The result is a city turning into an open-air shop window, where the temptation of profit outweighs the desire and necessity to keep it alive through its local inhabitants. This dual reading of Venetian reality emerges clearly in Avelino Sala’s work. On the one hand, this showcase-city possesses a real essence that resists, that fights, and remains constantly present against this negative transformation. On the other hand, it is a city at times frozen, passively letting itself be dragged along by events. A city that would prefer to remain suspended in time, as if that were a solution: not moving forward into an uncertain future.
Following this reflection, “Naturaleza muerta con pescado”, an essential map of Venice, is displayed hanging inside the cold storage room of the old butcher shop—like a body awaiting its fate. It waits for a moment of pause, of reflection, a shift, an act of salvation in the face of the slow but relentless annihilation consuming it. But, as mentioned, there is also another city: one that is alive, inhabited, and that defends itself. A city that asserts its rights and gives dignity to the sense of belonging. A city that rises from care and memory, through a gesture of protective resistance and constructive will.