Monica De Cardenas is pleased to announce “Dialogues”, a group exhibition that brings together artists from different generations between figuration and abstraction.

Alex Katz (*1927, New York, lives in New York)

Celebrated for his iconic paintings that combine elegance with striking emotional clarity, Alex Katz has influenced generations of younger painters. Since the 1950s, he has developed a distinctive visual language defined by flat planes of color, sharp contours, and a refined economy of detail. Katz’s portraits – often of close friends, family members, and recurring muses like his wife Ada – capture fleeting moments with a timeless, almost cinematic stillness. His large-scale works, both intimate and monumental – including cutouts and immersive landscapes – reflect a lifelong engagement with light, surface, and the immediacy of perception. With a career spanning over seven decades and exhibitions at major institutions worldwide including a retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2022, Katz continues to redefine the possibilities of figurative painting.

Stephan Balkenhol (*1957, Fritzlar, lives in Kassel)

Among the most distinctive sculptors of our time, Balkenhol works from a single piece of poplar or wawa wood, hand‑carving figures in casual attire – occasionally hybrid animal‑human forms – then painting them with matte colors. The artist’s gesture is left visible through chisel marks on the surface, preserving the raw material’s vitality. His subjects, silent yet subtly expressive, are stripped of overt emotion but laden with presence: stoic, enigmatic, imbued with both dignity and a wry, minimal realism.

Stephan Balkenhol has shown extensively in European and American galleries and museums. His works are in the collections of some of the world's most important museums such as: Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; Tate Gallery, London; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice; National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan.

Gideon Rubin (*1973, Tel Aviv, lives in London)

Known for his dense and seductive paintings, Gideon Rubin explores themes of memory, identity, and the passage of time. Working from found photographs and vintage imagery, Rubin erases facial features and specific details, creating anonymous figures that feel both distant and familiar. This deliberate absence invites viewers to project their own narratives onto the works, evoking a quiet sense of nostalgia and emotional resonance. Using a muted palette and fluid brushwork, Rubin transforms personal and collective memories into poetic compositions offering space for contemplation, empathy, and imagination.

Gideon Rubin held solo exhibitions around the world and his works are included in international museums and important private collections, among others: McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco; Zabludowicz Collection, London; Ruinart and Fondation Francès in France; Museum Voorlinden Collection in Holland; Herzliya Museum for Contemporary Art and Rubin Museum in Israel; Collezione Maramotti and Collezione Fondazione San Patrignano in Italy.

Svenja Deininger (*1974, Vienna, lives in Milan and Vienna)

Svenja Deininger’s paintings emerge through a meticulous, intuitive process in which each work is part of an ongoing visual dialogue. Combining oil paint with materials like gesso, marble dust, and glue, she creates textured surfaces that subtly shift with the light. Though abstract, her compositions are rooted in concrete forms, reimagined and rearranged to invite new interpretations. Working only in natural light, Deininger embraces experimentation and revision, producing works that are both precise and open-ended.

Deininger has exhibited across Europe and the United States. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia; Kunsthalle Krems; Secession and Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna.

Henry Curchod (*1992, Palo Alto, USA, lives in London)

Influenced by both a Kurdish-Iranian heritage and a Western upbringing, Curchod’s works are alive with turmoil and energy. Drawing is key to his work: he begins by sketching lightly with oil stick, followed by turpentine-dipped brushes that are pushed into the gestural marks, with final charcoal lines bringing greater clarity to the figures. In his practice Curchod blends figuration and abstraction, introducing unorthodox perspectives and compositions, and illuminating a dreamlike, whimsical, and anecdotic reality.

He studied Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and had solo exhibitions in Shanghai, New York, London, Paris and Los Angeles.