Temporary Exhibitions
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao offers a dynamic program of temporary modern and contemporary art exhibitions that deepen our understanding of art today and give an overview of the international scene in art history.
Arts of the Earth
Arts of the Earth presents works by pioneering artists in landscape intervention and the use of organic materials that explore themes of identity, gender, and ecology. Intersecting with currents such as conceptual art and Land Art, the exhibition includes installations, sculptures, textiles, performances, and paintings created in recent decades, along with ephemeral works that will sprout, grow, and transform during the course of the show.
The itinerary begins on the second floor, in gallery 205, with historical works by artists such as Meg Webster, Ana Mendieta, and Fina Miralles, among others.
The monumental installation by Delcy Morelos made of earth covers practically the entire space of gallery 206. As we enter, we are greeted by aromas of cinnamon and cloves, blended with clay to create an experience that, through the senses, invites us to connect with the intangible.
Next, in gallery 207, we find living works that re-present plant processes, such as Hans Haacke’s Grass Grows, Isa Melsheimer’s Wardian Cases, and Asad Raza’s participatory installation Root sequence (Mother Tongue), a miniature forest featuring 26 saplings.
In gallery 209, there are monumental adobe ceramics created by Gabriel Chaile, along with pieces by Oscar Santillán that emulate the soil composition on Venus, and textiles made with chaguar fibers by indigenous women from the Wichí community. The itinerary then continues in gallery 203, where the Ateneo Campesino [countryside athenaeum] displays objects related to the cultivation of land, linked to ancestral practices such as beekeeping and agriculture, both locally and globally. Finally, the works of the artists shown in gallery 202 are made from organic materials, as exemplified by María Cueto’s plant tapestries and Heidi Bucher’s architectural prints in beeswax.
Isa Melsheimer
Wardian Case, 2023
Glass, potting soil, seeds, plants
Dimensions variable (installation view at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao)
Courtesy the artist and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris
© Isa Melsheimer, Bilbao 2025
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
Gallery 105
(October 16–February 22)
The exhibition dedicated to Portuguese abstract painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (b. 1908; d. 1992) is divided into several sections that cover her work from 1930 to 1980.
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva was an outstanding member of the School of Paris thanks to her unique language, oscillating between figuration and abstraction. In her paintings she created scenes that are halfway between fiction and reality, using projecting lines, grids, checkerboards, and motifs inspired in traditional Portuguese tiles, thus transforming the painting space within the canvas. In 1938, faced with the threat of World War II, she was forced into exile in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she produced paintings like Tragic Maritime Story or Shipwreck (História trágico-marítima ou Naufrage, 1944).
After the war, she returned to Paris, where she continued her work on real and imaginary structures and architectures, as in The City (La Ville, 1950–51). In her work, the artist painted labyrinthine interiors, colorful kaleidoscopes where figures merge into the ground.
In the final section of the exhibition, the vibrant hues of many of Vieira da Silva’s paintings give way to different shades of white, which reflect the Vieira Da Silva’s experiments with light—a constant throughout her career.
Maria Helena Vieira da Silva
The City (La Ville), 1950–51
Oil on canvas
97.3 x 129.4 cm
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman
© María Helena Vieira da Silva, VEGAP, Bilbao 2025
