The University of Córdoba, through its publishing imprint UCOPress, in collaboration with the Cueva de Nerja Foundation, has published María Belén Morales: formas en diálogo, the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name, which can be visited at the Nerja Museum from 23 July to 20 September 2026.
It can be downloaded free of charge via these two links: https://ucopress.uco.es/producto/isbn-9788410720176/ y https://doi.org/10.21071/000148
About the exhibition
The Tenerife-born sculptor’s connection with Córdoba dated back to the late 1980s. To overcome the difficulties of transporting her work from the Canary Islands, she decided to create large-scale pieces in Córdoba, where she was welcomed by Jacinto Lara, who shared his studio in Villarrubia with her and put her in touch with the workshops of Antonio Jiménez, in Fernán Núñez, and Rafael Arjona, in Villarrubia, complementing the work carried out at the Bronzo foundries in Tenerife.
Following the exhibition in 2023 of a selection of works created between 1990 and 2004 at the MACEW Museum and the Institute of Hispanic Studies of the Canary Islands in Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife), in 2023 UCOCultura launched an ambitious project: María Belén Morales: laboratorio itinerante de formas: Córdoba/Tenerife 1990-2000. This exhibition was intended to mark the 30th anniversary of the solo exhibition in which María Belén Morales presented the work she had created in Córdoba at the Palacio de Viana. The great interest generated by this exhibition led to further exhibitions in Granada, Jaén and Málaga.
In 2024, the exhibition was shown simultaneously at the Rafael Botí Foundation and at UCOCultura.
In 2026, visit the Nerja Museum, founded by the sculptor and curator Caroline Krabbe, who states: “Her sculptures, drawings and projects do not appear as separate disciplines, but as different manifestations of the same quest”.
For the most part, it features works that are little known to the public. The exhibition includes models and sketches of public art projects, as well as reflections on his artistic achievements, which help to trace the evolution of his ideas over time. In both the models and the large-scale sculptures, crafted from steel plates, he expresses his conviction regarding the construction of volume through the spatial projection of two-dimensional form. Her collages and assemblages feature recreations of both territories which, as we shall see, are increasingly integrated into his expressive language, which is becoming ever more synthetic and closer to geometric abstraction.
Furthermore, the exhibition is accessible to everyone, featuring: wall-mounted works at a height of 1.40 for wheelchair users, three sculptures that can be touched, posters and a guest book in Braille, a subtitled and video-signed presentation for deaf visitors, and an easy-to-read guide.
About the author
The sculptor María Belén Morales (Tenerife, 1928–2016) is one of the most highly regarded and prominent artists in the Canary Islands. She worked in various artistic disciplines, including sculpture, drawing and collage. A pioneer of the post-war avant-garde in Spain, she had already moved towards full abstraction by 1961. Her art possesses a solidity and a voice of its own, the result of her ceaseless search for new forms of expression.
More info: https://mariabelenmorales.org/
