Studio Debris: A Bit of Everything, A Lot of Nothing
Studio Debris: A Bit of Everything, A Lot of Nothing
Coco Capitán
18 July–16 August 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday 17 July, 6pm–8pm
Maximillian William is pleased to announce Coco Capitán’s exhibition Studio Debris: A Bit of Everything, A Lot of Nothing. Featuring a range of work that the artist has made over the past few years, including large-scale photographs, polaroids, unframed prints, paintings, as well as pithy phrases and notes that she has written on hotel stationery, Studio Debris opens the door to the restless abundance of the artist’s creative processes.
Studio Debris will present a full range of the artist’s photographic work, including the large-scale Erik Rolls a Cigarette (2017). In an otherwise everyday room, a young man lounges in his underwear on a bright blue carpet, staring directly at the viewer as he rolls a cigarette. At over two metres wide, the scale of the photograph and the position of the figure serve to echo depictions of women in art history, from mythological figures such as Titian’s Venus of Urbino (1538) to Manet’s Olympia (1863). Capitán inverts convention, presenting us with a male figure, recumbent and at ease as his gaze meets the viewer’s. In contrast to this substantial tableau, across the room will be steel plates festooned with a variety of prints, including polaroids, loose and unframed, reflecting a wide variety of Capitán’s photographic oeuvre, from magazine work and editorial portraits to pictures from the artist’s frequent travels to Japan. The array of photographs serves to animate the breadth of the artist’s curiosity and vision, from portraiture to landscape, showcasing her eye for both composition and colour. The colour blue is especially important for Capitán, visible in many of her photographs, from a series of manipulated Polaroids to the dominant hue in Erik Rolls a Cigarette.
Elsewhere in the exhibition, a group of Capitán’s text-paintings, including one that features the title of the exhibition, A Little of Everything, A Lot of Nothing (2025), shows another facet of her practice. Imagination Investments (Further than Money Will Ever Take You) (2025), with a Pegasus in flight on a dark background, seems to present a sardonic take on the promises of capitalism. Both paintings animate a dialogue between image and language, materiality and idea, longing and abundance. This dialogue continues with smaller works on hotel stationery such The Present for the Future (2025). With their playful epigrammatic phrases, the text works offer existential asides, as if the artist is attempting to reassure herself – and the viewer – with snippets of self-help. Finally, a small multi-media installation combines a photograph, a found object and a written work. The photograph, A Gladiator’s Tear (2024), depicts a large teardrop dripping across the steely cheek of a mask. The text work, The Dealer’s Mask (2024), reveals the artist’s sense of self-doubt, while also alluding to the masks one might need to wear to keep up appearances – whether artist, dealer or gallery-goer.
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Coco Capitán (b. 1992, Seville, Spain) lives and works in London. She completed her MFA in Photography with Honours at the Royal College of Art, London in 2016. Her multidisciplinary practice spans fine art and commercial contexts and includes photography, painting, installation and writing.
Recent solo exhibitions include Memento Mori, Villa Noailles, Hyères (2024), L057 L053R, Spiral, Tokyo (2024), NAÏVY: in fifty (definitive) photographs, Maximillian William, London (2023), Who Art Thou, Yvon Lambert, Paris (2023), Ookini, Kyoto (2023), NAÏVY: in fifty (definitive) photographs, Parco Museum, Tokyo (2022), Naïvy, Maximillian William, London (2021), Busy Living: Everything with Everyone, Everywhere, All of the Time, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2020) and Is It Tomorrow Yet?, Daelim Museum, Seoul (2019). Her work is held in the collections of the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris and Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam.
She has published several books, including Naïvy, If You’ve Seen It All Close Your Eyes, Naïvy in 50 (Definitive) Photographs and Middle Point Between My House and China. Capitán's commercial practice is an integral part of her work, with clients including Gucci, Cartier, Samsung, Nike, Dior, Camper, Belmond, Lacoste, Smythson and Mulberry. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Le Monde, El País, Vogue, Dazed, Dust and FT Magazine. Capitán has been a guest speaker at institutions including Cambridge University, the Royal College of Art, Oxford University, Manchester School of Art, London Southbank University and Aalto University.