Liminal Space. María Oriza

The old Trading Hall at CentroCentro is hosting an exhibition from 11 March to 26 April as part of the EPICENTRO programme, featuring various guest artists. On this occasion, María Oriza, an artist from Burgos, is exhibiting a mural that maps out tensions, an intermediate terrain between what is visible to the eye and what intuition tells us, referring to the transitory condition of the living. 

The mural is presented as a fragment of a potentially infinite sequence, in which each element acts as part of a larger system. No one form is autonomous: all of them participate in a structure that both precedes and transcends them. Modularity functions as a strategy to shift focus from the individual piece to the whole, to the rhythm and relationship between the parts. The visible and the absent coexist on the same plane, activating the tension between what is perceived and what must be mentally reconstructed.

The piece is formed by modules that emerge from the intersection of two identical clay sheets arranged in opposition: one concave and the other convex. This arrangement creates a central void that acts as both a structural support and a conceptual core, becoming an active and organising element of the volume as a whole. This central space, shaped like an almond or mandorla, is manifested in different ways: as a structural void, as an imprint left when cutting the clay, as a line within the grid and as a sequence in the vertical arrangement of the modules.

This piece proposes an experience that goes beyond the purely visual and shows the viewer an exercise in projection: to remain between what is visible to the eye and what can be guessed through intuition, and at the same time, to step into a moment of awareness. 

María Oriza Pérez (Aranda de Duero, 1964) lives and works in Madrid. She trained at the Francisco Alcántara School of Ceramics and at the Municipal School of La Moncloa in Madrid during the 1980s. This period provided her with a solid technical foundation that, in the early 90s, allowed her to embark on a professional career focused on abstract sculpture.

Her pieces have been part of international collective exhibitions in France, South Korea, Italy, the Netherlands, England, Taiwan and various Spanish cities. They are also included in the collections of several museums such as the Design Museum in Barcelona, the Càntir Museum in Argentona, the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf, Germany, the Palmyra Sculpture Centre in Palma de Mallorca, the Nakatomi Contemporary Art Museum in Japan, Fundación Siglo and the Ritz-Carlton Collection.

Image credits:

Liminal space (detail), María Oriza. 2026