IN BETWEEN

Opening: 6 November, 18:00
Public talk with Luis Olaso: 7 November

What happens between a gesture and an image, movement and form, abstraction and recognition? In Between, a two-person exhibition bringing together Rahim El and Luis Olaso, explores these shifting territories, where colour becomes movement, spontaneous marks begin to suggest familiar forms, and images remain open to interpretation.

Although both artists work with abstraction, their practices approach it from different directions. For Rahim El, painting is deeply connected to rhythm, dance and the physical experience of movement. For Luis Olaso, the image emerges through an intuitive process in which gesture precedes recognition, allowing forms to surface gradually from the interplay of colour, line and composition. Together, their works create a dialogue between impulse and structure, the tangible and the elusive.

Born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and now based in Catalonia, Rahim El draws on a multifaceted artistic background shaped by music, dance and theatre. His paintings translate movement into colour, rhythm and texture, preserving the energy of a gesture beyond the moment of its creation. This exploration extends into sculpture and three-dimensional objects, where the language of painting acquires weight, surface and volume. Placed in dialogue with his canvases, these objects become more than extensions of the painted image: they offer another way of experiencing its forms, while the paintings, in turn, transform how we perceive the objects.

Born in Bilbao in 1986 and currently based in Cádiz, Luis Olaso develops his paintings through a dynamic interplay of spontaneity and reflection. Initially self-taught, he later studied Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country. His process often begins without a predetermined image: gestures, brushstrokes and unexpected encounters between colours gradually give rise to forms that may evoke figures, plants or objects without ever becoming entirely fixed. Moving between expressive figuration and abstraction, Olaso invites viewers to participate in this process of discovery, where each new look can reveal a different image.

In In Between, the space between the two practices becomes a place of exchange. Rahim El moves from the energy of movement towards material presence, while Olaso allows images to emerge from the freedom of the painted gesture. Both resist a single, definitive reading of their work. Instead, they invite viewers to move between what they recognise and what remains uncertain, discovering connections that are never entirely settled.

The exhibition proposes abstraction not as an absence of meaning, but as an active space in which meaning takes shape through perception. Between the canvas and the object, the gesture and its trace, the artist’s intention and the viewer’s imagination, the image is never quite finished. It continues to change.

Exhibition dates: 6 November – 6 December 2026
Opening reception: 6 November, 18:00
Public talk with Luis Olaso: 7 November 2026
Venue: HOTEL ESTELA BARCELONA

Avda. Port d'Aiguadolç, 8

08870 SITGES | Barcelona

In Between is presented by DOM Art Residence.