Andrea Fried, in the territory of color

In his book The Future of Museums , Hungarian writer András Szántó , along with museum directors from around the world, imagined a city designed entirely by artists. From supermarket bags to street signs, everything would be permeated by a sensitive, deliberately aesthetic gaze . The paintings of Argentine artist Andrea Fried , whose exhibition "Cartografía del color" (Cartograph of Color) has just opened at the Paseo de las Artes Duhau, would fit perfectly into this utopian scenario.

With their firm lines, vibrant colors, and shifting geometries, her works seem to belong to that parallel visual universe where emotions are organized into codes. And it's no coincidence. "For 18 years, I was an entrepreneur. My company was dedicated to inventory management, and barcodes were a fundamental part of the process," says Fried. Although she graduated in Business Administration from the University of Buenos Aires in 1996, she left her profession in 2011 to dedicate herself fully to painting . "One day, looking at my paintings, I realized that those bands of color separated by white had a lot to do with that other life," the artist admits in an interview with Ñ .

The transition was gradual. “At first, my life was very structured, while my painting was chaotic: pure color, formless. Over time, everything was reversed. My daily life became more disordered, and my work began to become more organized,” he reflects. Geometric abstraction , with its repetitions, patterns, and restrained lines, emerged as a new possible language.

The exhibition, comprised of 31 works created between 2017 and the present, traces a timeline, both literally and symbolically : from vertical rigidity to the fluidity of the curve. “I knew I needed a change, but I didn't know where to go. Until, in the studio, Sergio Bazán —one of my teachers—turned one of my works over and said, 'Fried, let's see what happens next,'” she recalls. Thus were born the diagonals, the sequential patterns, and the desire to introduce movement into the pictorial surface. “I sought to allow the painting to expand on the plane, to visually break out of the canvas, like a film.”

Installed in the underground gallery of the Duhau Palace , this charming French-style building on Alvear Street, Cartografía del color offers an absorbing visual journey : from the earliest works, structured around vertical bars of strident tones, to the most recent, in which the curve takes control and movement becomes serene. Some pieces even play with the idea of ​​scale, repeating motifs as if they were part of a larger whole . “I'm interested in working with fragmentation and zoom. A work can be many works at once,” she says. These pieces—some previously exhibited in the exhibition Sinestesia Aguda at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo —were born from looking at the photo reel on her cell phone. “I rescued the fragmented images that I liked, and I replicated them on the canvas, on a larger scale,” she explains.

Color occupies a central place in his work , both conceptually and sensorially. “It’s the soul of my paintings. The form contains it, but it’s the color that expands it. White marks the rhythm, like a pause,” explains Fried, who finds inspiration in figures such as Mark Rothko and Josef Albers , but also in Bauhaus architecture and the poetry he read as a teenager.

For Fried, “color communicates and resonates with people's emotions; it transcends rationality. The perception of each tone is very subjective; it changes depending on the environment and relative position. I like to explore and play with that in my works.” She also says she enjoys seeing the brushstroke: “It gives life to the painting, warmth to the structure.”

It's no coincidence that the gallery's layout—conceived in collaboration with curator Roberto García —progresses from Posadas Street to Alvear Avenue, serving as a metaphor for the artist's internal movement. "In recent years, I felt the need to make my work more flexible again. More organic figures began to appear, along with a sense of floating. A more serene movement."

The exhibition's title arose from the idea of ​​a map or territory constructed exclusively with colors , and, true to the spirit of his work, Fried avoids imposing interpretations. "I subscribe to Frank Stella 's phrase: 'What you see is what you see.' I like everyone to feel what they need to feel." There is a certainty in this journey that leaves no room for doubt: "Color was always the protagonist," Fried admits.

Andrea Fried (Buenos Aires, 1972) has held solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows in Argentina, the United States, and Italy. Her work is part of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Buenos Aires (MACBA).

The Color Cartography exhibition can be visited at the Paseo de las Artes Duhau, Park Hyatt (Posadas 1350), every day, 24 hours a day, until July 6, with free admission.