Miguel Ángel Tornero. Big Frieze

Madrid’s Glass Palace, which is currently undergoing restoration and repair work until 2027, is a space in which traditionally artists are commissioned to develop works of art especially designed for its unique architecture. On this occasion, from 16 January 2025 until 16 January 2026, artist Miguel Ángel Tornero is presenting a piece especially designed for the canvases that will cover the building during the  first year of restoration work.

In his recent works, artist Miguel Ángel Tornero (Baeza, 1978) uses photographs that he takes in his daily life, a series of snapshots against the backdrop of Madrid, where he lives. From trivial little social interactions we see around the city to the monumental architecture of power that characterises Madrid.

These photographs, which are presented as fragments in themselves of a greater reality, are cropped and superimposed over other images. The artist interchanges scales and motifs to create complex collages  awash with a multiplicity of possible representations of the city. These collages are an analogue result of the digital image.

The technique used to create Gran Friso maintains the intimacy of the everyday and the simplicity of the circulatory nature of the things we use. The process begins with clippings of printed photographs (maximum 15 cm), which are stuck to each other using regular household tape. They are then placed on a model made from wood and cardboard that reproduces the architecture and finally photographed. As a result, the canvas reproduces those snapshots on a scale of more than 6 metres.

The images of the city become still life compositions on an urban scale, but also that same monumentality turns this work into an immense diorama, which does not shy away from attesting to the current state of the interior of the Glass Palace currently under construction.

Image Credits:

Miguel Ángel Tronero, Gran Friso (detail), 2024. VEGAP, Madrid, 2025