Explicit and implicit metamorphosis is involuntary and inexplicable. It begins silently at different stages of life, and nature is the principle that helps us understand it. In nature we learn that nothing truly disappears; it changes, carries traces of what came before, and continues becoming.

In this body of work by visual artist and art conservator Catalina Leichner (Buenos Aires, 1996), there is an idyllic gaze upon personal experiences rooted in the wetlands of the Delta in Argentina, where she grew up. Through the inheritance of the blue and green pigments that nourished this landscape, surrounded by horses, birds, and native flowers, she draws from elements that would later compose the imagery of a woman deeply attuned to the sensitivity of the real, with an innate disposition to appreciate the transitions within the cycles of life, to meticulously observe all that nature can manifest, in a world where there was never any room for haste.

Within this relationship, she brings together the nuances of light and shadow found in water, flora and fauna, fire, the moon and stars, and in the exuberance of horses, which become a connecting thread between the natural and spiritual landscape that surrounds her. Rooted in the nostalgic setting of childhood, horses invite the artist to ride again and to dream of the unicorn as a totem. This longing resurfaces during her migration to Australia, where exhaustion clouds her like charcoal on paper, yet gives way to forms of light through erasure. The colours of her childhood embraced her again through the tranquil blues and whites of Chinese porcelain, transformed by distance and cultural exchange.

Through these comings and goings, losses and encounters, observations and reinterpretations of a living memory, Catalina Leichner’s story unfolds through the ancestral wisdom of nature, emotion, and materials. Graphite, water-based pigments, and layers of oil paint interpret a world of magical realism, as if transformation itself were a divine act that regenerates and finds its belonging again.

Words by Dora Moreno

Catalogue