Isidre Mateo Spanien, b. 1957

Galerie von Opel is delighted to present the work of Isidre Mateo, in collaboration with  Museum Mater (Barcelona). The exhibition will be on view in our gallery from October 5 to November 9.

Isidre studied Arts and Crafts and later graduated in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Sant Jordi in Barcelona. He is the founder of Formatos, a graphic arts company with a dual purpose: production and teaching, particularly in the field of graphic training and screen printing. A multidisciplinary artist, Mateo has explored graphic arts, paper construction, and more recently, signature jewellery.

In one of his most distinctive creative stages, Mateo turned to origami, developing paper architectures that expand into space like mantras. These black-and-white radial forms evoke a sacred minimalism, structures that seem to draw from traditions where the divine is expressed without figurative representation. In his work, drawing and sculpture merge, as do architecture and texture, in a meditative rhythm of folding and repetition.

His exploration began when Valentina Asinari introduced him to origami models made by architecture students. Fascinated, Mateo immersed himself in the study of folded structures, where art and science meet. This research led him to discover new geometric fields and patterns, later enriched by his use of textures and colors.

Some of his paper constructions also dialogue with Catalan design traditions, such as hydraulic tiles and geometric motifs, transforming these references into volumetric works. In the words of critic Laura Muns, Mateo’s practice is one of “making and repeating, building and spreading, like a prayer, like a thought.” His work, while rooted in material experimentation, ultimately points to the poetic dimension of form, where geometry becomes meditation and structure becomes art.