Daniel Steegmann Mangrané

I’m deeply interested in the relationships between nature and culture, which are always present – often in a very formal way – and derive from the opposition between a natural and chaotic form, on one hand, and a cultural and organized form on the other hand. […] This formal opposition between cultural and natural elements is always present but, at the same time, I try to break with it by showing that the geometrical form can be organic, and that the organic form is, in fact, also a geometric form that is extremely more complex. This is an attempt to think about the relationships between forms, rather than about the forms themselves.

– Daniel Steegmann Mangrané

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané's research is composed of subtle yet crude experiments that question the relationship between language and the world. Although primarily conceptual, his installations engage with the imagination of the spectator and exhibit a strong concern with the existence of everything we see, but especially on everything that we do not see.

Mangrané’s work often traces the boundary where nature meets artifice. Lines, circles and rhombuses are drawn, cut and projected onto leaves; the delicate symmetry of branches is split in two. These precise interventions hold a powerful force of attraction: a moment of uncertainty between what is contrived and what is natural. In each of Steegmann Mangrané’s intricate compositions, we get to experience that, far from being distinct, the organic and the geometric, the vital and the abstract, define each other.

Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (b. 1977, Barcelona, Spain) lives and works in Barcelona.

Solo exhibitions include: MACBA, Barcelona (2023); Kiasma, Helsinki (2023); Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum Tromsø, Tromsø (2022); Institut d'Art Contemporain, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (2022); Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2020); Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2019); Institut d’Art Contemporain de Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (2019); CCS Bard College, New York (2018); Fundació Tàpies, Barcelona (2018); Museu Serralves, Porto (2017); MAMM, Medellín (2016).

His work has been included in group exhibitions at MoMA, New York (2023); Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2023); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2022); Liverpool Biennial (2021); Taipei Biennial (2020); Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich (2019); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018); Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart (2018); Centre Pompidou, Metz (2017); Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz (2017); 14th Biennale de Lyon (2017); Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2016); New Museum Triennial, New York (2015); Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon (2015); Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid (2014).