“It is our ignorance of Honduras which has thus far
allowed us to leave it a hidden and useless treasure.”

— William Wells, 1857.

Galería Extra is proud to present Bonanzas efímeras by Adán Vallecillo (Honduras, 1977) at Frieze London 2024.

Emerging as a long-term project conceived at the intersections of painting, sociology, dance, and ceramics, Bonanzas efímeras brings together a group of abstract works consisting of ceramic pieces, paintings and objects. The work finds its footing in el Valle de Siria in Honduras, a volcanic ecosystem victim to extractivist currents and mining activities which have tangibly altered the natural state of the landscape.

The patterns in these paintings, composed of repurposed canvas patches hand-painted invidually, evokes the traces left by the removal of the land and the alterations in the natural composition of the soil stemming from the polluting waste produced by mining activities. The artist questions both ancestral and contemporary relationships with the earth, placing a spotlight on the ever-evolving processes of colonization and exploitation in the global south.

The formal and aesthetic results of Adán’s projects are based on bibliographic and field research, which are then translated into a visual expression. This project, however, an experiment in reverse—the long and meticulous work of hand-building, painting and collage, in the intimacy of the workshop, is finally exported to a social context through a series of tours and interviews in emblematic places of mining extractivism in Honduras.