The work of Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias feels right at home in La Pedrera, one of Antoni Gaudí’s most celebrated buildings. Just like the famed architect, Iglesias finds inspiration in nature to build structures of her own. This sentiment is at the heart of Iglesias’ first solo retrospective in Barcelona, titled Pasajes (Passages), which highlights her singular vision and establishes a creative dialogue between the artist and Gaudí.
Curated by James Lingwood, Pasajes features 40 artworks created over the last 24 years. Here, her towering, immersive pieces take center stage. Doubling as labyrinths, these installations are meant to be explored from the inside so the viewer can take in all of their details from every angle possible. By doing so, each person becomes one with the installation, turning it into an ever-changing piece about the fluctuating nature of life.
Also being exhibited are her smaller works, which are a testament to her unique view about what constitutes art and how it’s used to express intangible truths. For Iglesias, water can be a sculptural material sending a message about the passage of time through sounds, reflections of light, and rhythms. She also uses a more traditional sculpting material—aluminum—to build organic motifs, exploring the idea of continuous, expansive growth in nature.
While the artworks are complex on their own, Lingwood also notices how being surrounded by Gaudí’s work adds a layer to the overarching themes of the exhibit. “At times the dialogue is close,” the curator tells My Modern Met. “For instance, in the first of Gaudí’s patios where Iglesias has installed one of her Pozos (Wells), or in the ‘geological forest’ Iglesias created specially for the exhibition which envelops several of Gaudí’s stone pillars with massive sculptural forms, like a petrified forest, to create a duet between sculpture and architecture, space and surface.”
Just as La Pedrera has come to symbolize Gaudí’s expansive imagination—from the innovative floor plans to the geometric solutions he conceived to bring his ideas to life—Pasajes compiles work that has earned Iglesias a place among Europe’s top contemporary sculptors. “Everywhere you look, there are reverberations between the forms they create, not least their shared fascination with organic and geological forms, plants, and stones,” adds Lingwood.
Pasajes is on view at La Pedrera in Barcelona through January 25. To learn more, visit Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera’s website.
La Pedrera, one of Antoni Gaudí’s most celebrated buildings, welcomes a retrospective on the work of Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias.
Titled Pasajes (Passages), the exhibit highlights her singular vision and establishes a creative dialogue between the artist and Gaudí.
Curated by James Lingwood, Pasajes features 40 artworks created over the last 24 years.
Just as La Pedrera has come to symbolize Gaudí’s expansive imagination, Pasajes compiles work that has earned Iglesias a place among Europe’s top contemporary sculptors.
“Everywhere you look, there are reverberations between the forms they create, not least their shared fascination with organic and geological forms, plants, and stones.”
Exhibition Information:
Cristina Iglesias
Pasajes
October 9, 2025–January 25, 2026
La Pedrera
Pg. de Gràcia, 92, Eixample, 08008. Barcelona, Spain
Cristina Iglesias: Website | Instagram