Andalusian folk cinema and Lola Flores, who was one of its fundamental figures in the 20th century, are the focus of Ana Segovia’s first solo exhibition in Spain (Mexico City, 1991), an emerging artist in the North American scene whose work offers a personal approach to the cinematic experience, seen through genres like Western films or the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, as a starting point to reflect on issues such as the construction of the viewer’s gaze or personal identity.
For her exhibition at the Center for Contemporary Creation of Andalusia (C3A), under the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Mexican artist Ana Segovia presents a series of unpublished works specifically produced for the occasion under the title ‘My eyes hurt from looking without seeing’, curated by the director of the Andalusian Center for Contemporary Art (CAAC), Jimena Blázquez Abascal.
The T4 Room at the Cordoba center will host this exhibition until January 6, 2026. In conjunction with the exhibition, C3A is organizing a film series, ‘Echoes of Gold: Andalusian folklore and resistance in classic Spanish and Mexican cinema’, bridging the artist’s reflections with the cinematic context that inspires her work.
Inspired by the film ‘Pena, penita, pena’ (1953, Miguel Morayta) and the figure of the ‘Faraona’, Segovia’s exhibition invites the viewer to inhabit a space between the seen and the absent. As Blázquez Abascal notes, «absence is not lack, but an echo that resonates in the center of every gaze.» The Mexican artist’s exhibition at C3A consists of 13 oil paintings on canvas and an image transferred onto wood, all created in 2025. Through various formats, from large-scale paintings (290 x 190 centimeters) to small pieces (7.5 x 7.5 centimeters), the works are presented with titles that refer to the cinematic language.
Canvases by Mexican artist Ana Segovia, in one of the rooms at C3A.
In ‘My eyes hurt from looking without seeing’, Ana Segovia takes absence in the scene as the narrative core represented in the paintings. Thus, «Lola Flores does not appear in any painting and the characters, usually seen from behind, look at an empty point where she should be,» notes the curator. Her painting extends beyond the canvas by incorporating the scenographic into the exhibition space. The cinematic shots of these Spanish films underpin both the structure of the exhibition and its aesthetics, where curtains and visual layers fragment the viewer’s gaze and organize their experience.
The works created for this series feature colors like ochre, acid pink, or yellow, in a play of perspectives and scenarios of a baroque theatricality. All these components reinforce the tension between what is visible to the observer and what is not. In Blázquez Abascal’s words, the work «turns the viewer into an external witness, an intruder who observes those who observe. This is an exhibition about looking as an active act, about the tension between presence and absence, and about desire as a way to construct meaning in what is not shown.»
Parallel Film Series
As part of the parallel programming, C3A is organizing a film series in dialogue with the exhibition, ‘Echoes of Gold: Andalusian folklore and resistance in classic Spanish and Mexican cinema.’ Throughout different sessions, key films like ‘Pena, penita, pena’ (1953) by Miguel Morayta, ‘Carmen, la de Triana’ (1938) by Florián Rey, or ‘Blood Wedding’ (1981) by Carlos Saura will be screened. Each screening will be accompanied by an introduction and a post-screening discussion, focusing on topics such as the representation of absence, theatricality, myth, and folklore in the audiovisual and pictorial context.
Ana Segovia’s Career
Ana Segovia lives and works in Mexico City. She obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), specializing in painting and drawing. In 2020, she was part of the Casa Wabi art residency in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, and Italy, as well as at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.
Additionally, she has exhibited in institutions such as MOCA (Los Angeles), the Carrillo Gil Art Museum (CDMX), the Karen Huber Gallery (CDMX), PAOS Guadalajara, and Monti8 Gallery (Italy). Her work is part of collections at the Denver Art Museum, the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), and Alumnos 47 (CDMX).