LUCY MULLICAN: ENCOUNTER

Plaza de San Nicolas 2, Madrid

May 22 - July 24, 2026

We are thrilled to announce Encounter, the upcoming exhibition at our Madrid location, Lucy Mullican’s third exhibition with Villa Magdalena. The works on view are Mullican’s latest paintings and watercolors, produced in Madrid as part of the artist’s two-month residency with the gallery.

Lucy Mullican’s (New York, 1994) presentation begins with a selection of three found objects: a child worker’s shoe from the early 1800s, a decorative wall plate of German origin, and a photograph from the 1920s of an unknown woman in Glasgow. Each piece relates to places where the artist has lived (Berlin, Glasgow) but more importantly they are charged symbols which allow Mullican to create fictional stories and engage with ghostly entities. These objects carry the weight of past lives and fleeting souls. Single shoes have begun to appear frequently in Mullican’s life. She views these omens as lonesome totems or bodies as she stumbles upon them in unexpected locations.

The readymades on view reflect the ephemeral nature of both the paintings and drawings by becoming symbols of impermanence. Mullican uses the horizon line as a compositional device to create a tension between gravity and the human spirit; which in contrast to the former is always in a state of ascension. We glean a map of an ethereal world which is ultimately a self-portrait. The artist has undergone a spiritual transformation seen through a departure from painting waterfalls, islands, and rivers into an inward direction of the mind and the organs. Exterior environments have begun to blend with the body, creating anthropomorphic landscapes. Her delicate paintings on wood and watercolors consist of many layers of mineral pigments and pulsating lines which create translucent surfaces. What the artist refers to as pockets or holes within the imagery function like doors that allow one to travel back and forth between pictures. The natural pigments of the watercolor and the wood receivers have become one, showing the artist’s innate ability to understand her medium and employ a technical fluidity. Mullican’s penetrating vision goes beyond the surface to reveal what we cannot see and bring us closer to what we feel. Transient moments flooded with light embody the artist’s representation of spirit.

Lucy Mullican received her BFA in Studio Art from the Glasgow School of Art in 2019. Recent solo exhibitions include: Veils, Villa Magdalena hosted by Galería Mascota, CDMX, Mexico (2023); Fragments, Villa Magdalena, San Sebastian, Spain (2022); Sensed As Well As Seen, Olympia, New York City, USA (2022). Recent group exhibitions include: Illusive Places II: Thomas Chapman, Alejandro Garmendia, Louis Jacquot, Lucy Mullican, Milko Pavlov, Villa Magdalena, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain (2024); Illusive Places: Thomas Chapman, Alejandro Garmendia, Louis Jacquot, Lucy Mullican, Milko Pavlov, Pace Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2024); I Rossori Dell’Arte (The Redness of Art), Ronchini, London, UK (2023); Two Years and Change, Olympia Gallery, NY, USA (2022).