Snow can transform from one moment to the next. At first, it appears white, dense, accumulated, and heavy. Then, it becomes the complete opposite: it melts, turning transparent and light. It occupies space, then vanishes, leaving behind a trace of its existence.
The works that make up Nieve que cala y flota (Snow That Seeps and Floats) possess this dual quality. They are ethereal, yet they command the space. Composed of an accumulation of lines, colors, strokes, oil paint, and chalk, they also appear suspended within the gallery.
Azul Van Peborgh traveled to a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. The works presented here—her first solo exhibition at Praxis—are the result of that experience. The collection was inspired by what she observed through her studio window: the contrast between the white snow and the black branches of the trees. How does one translate a landscape into a work of art? How can something as vast and elusive as snow be represented?
In these compositions, Azul combines chalk with oil pastel. While the oil paint builds textures reminiscent of woven fabric, the chalk lends a sense of transparency to the colors. The landscape in these pieces is conceived through the repetition and layering of lines and pigments. As the artist revisits the memory of that window, the landscape evolves—moving away from literal representation and transforming into something else entirely.
Just as snow occupies space, the three large-scale works positioned in the center of the gallery claim the room for themselves. Like monoliths from an unknown realm, they serve as portals to the very window Azul once looked through. Beyond them, seven paintings—rooted in ceramic traditions—stretch the limits of their own materiality; they are small horizons that connect to the subterranean, to the earth itself. Finally, a four-meter-long expanse of oil pastel and chalk on canvas unfolds like a moving sequence—much like a strip of film.
Snow has the power to envelop everything, and painting has the capacity to replicate that envelopment. Azul explores the landscape through her technique, and with each gesture, that space is transformed into something new: a trace, an experience, a memory.
Lucía Matusevich
Buenos Aires, October 2026
