Mindscape from the chair

The title of this exhibition relates to the position of the maker of these paintings. This position is manifold and both inward and about a panoply ideas and experiences, material reflections, problems made and then attempts to resolve these in regard to composition, form, and colour; at the same time, there is an outward and physical aspect to consider: that what goes on in one’s head when looking at a painting–in Daniel’s case, while seated in a chair–is and should be an extended conversation regarding moves and options ranging across a picture plane. Making a painting is akin chasing a moving target. The materials quickly become mercurial as well as slippery and wet and wildly unstable in even the most gifted and adroit hands. And Daniel Roibal’s possesses hands and a mind with great and gifted potential to make important work. Over the past year, I have witnessed all of this as one of the tutors who engage with our students in the Painting programme at the Royal College of Art in London.

As I walk through the studios, I experience a mix of happiness and relief when I see a Master’s student in painting doing nothing more than sitting in a chair and looking at the work they are making. The longer they sit there, the more confident I become that they may be on the right path. As a writer, I know very well the old adage that if one wishes to be a writer, one should read. The corollary for a painter is that one must look with intensity and also think while entering into something of a conversation with the thing looked at. This takes time. In my teaching, I have come up with an arbitrary coefficient to get students thinking about this point: I say, “you should be looking at your work at least ten times more and longer than you spend actually putting paint down.” We give them all chairs to sit in. Daniel Roibal sits and looks longer than many if not most. As you look at the paintings presented in Mindscape from the Chair, consider that you are entering into an extended conversation between maker and made recorded in the residue of mark and move where there was far more thinking and indeed silence then immediate physical activity. It is a slow education a painter embarks on, but one in which they must be in confident command of a rhythm and pace that acknowledges an understanding of the divergent logics of running a marathon, or that of a sprint. Vita brevis, Ars longa–to invert an ancient truism–and one should embrace the long game.

The works before you present a range of approaches to making a painting that Daniel Roibal has explored in the past year. There is a shared vocabulary even while there might be shifts in syntax, volume and voice. Daniel’s aim is to show you what all he does, but also importantly, how he does it. The series of paintings that share the title Asiento were in fact painted on the floor rather than on a studio wall, thus a viewer’s vantage point is that of the maker. When asked about some of the aims of this exhibition, Daniel states, “I believe that in this exhibition, I’m trying to showcase the creative process within the studio on a broader scale. The pieces were never meant to be together or share a space; they represent different moments from the last few months of work, during which I’ve tried to break away from habitual processes and find a new, more personal language.” These works, gathering up a range of approaches to the construction of a painting for Roibal, were made across two locations and moments. The first during a spring Residency in April of this year in his hometown of Palma de Mallorca, and the second in his studio and break-out making spaces during the second half of his studies and 2025 at the RCA in London.

These works, while divergent at times in approach, share an engagement in colour and composition that touches on elements of musicality in their composition. Painting, in all cases, is approached by maker (and ideally viewer alike) as a field of actualizable choices. Left traces are a record of a series of gestures. Again, made slowly and with stilled and studied consideration–as one choses their words, or moves on a board carefully and in light of combinations and relations that have past and with those that may come in the future. These are fields of possibilities where forces offer up concrete form from such formative energies released slowly over time considered while looking. Colour and form are here wed, like sound and sense. Gesture and sign coexist in a particular balance that results from a fusion of inert materials, extended reflection, and then formative energy. These works open themselves up to a viewer who ideally abandons oneself to a free play of reactions the work promotes. These moments may move on to the free play of associations such aesthetic information offers in a truly open work. Painting can be hard work for a maker, but it must be fun. All this takes time–making time, but all the more important is the time one takes to look and consider the next move as one chases a moving target with the wet and slippery stuff of paint. Daniel does all this with a great deal of seriousness and equal measure good will, charm and pleasure. For a young artist, Daniel is uncharacteristically at ease with his materials and tools, which perhaps allows sign and gesture to sit together in such a particular balance. Yes, Daniel Roibal has remarkable talent and potential, but the most important thing in my mind is that he spends the invaluable time to look long and hard before he makes a move. He thus paints like an ideal viewer, which should offer up something of a meaningful experience to others.