Spanish artist Rafa Macarrón opened Los Noctivagueantes at Makasiini Contemporary in Helsinki on Thursday, 13 August 2026. The reception ran from 5 to 8 pm at the Train Factory, with Macarrón present, giving the Finnish capital a first encounter with a new group of paintings centred on his elastic, dreamlike figures.
A nocturnal cast arrives in Helsinki
The exhibition’s title suggests figures moving after dark, and Macarrón’s characters appear designed for that uncertain territory. Their bodies stretch, narrow and swell beyond ordinary proportions. Faces, fingers and limbs become expressive structures rather than anatomical facts, while clothing and accessories give these invented beings traces of social identity.
Makasiini Contemporary describes the paintings as rooted in the human condition while approaching reality through surreal distortion. That tension matters: the figures may look playful at first, but their irregular bodies also question conventional standards of beauty and representation. Macarrón’s training as a physiotherapist gives the deformation an informed foundation. He understands bodily mechanics, then deliberately releases the body from them.
Distortion as a form of attention
In Los Noctivagueantes, exaggeration does more than establish a recognisable style. It makes vulnerability visible. Carefully built lines and peculiarly scaled forms place each character between intimacy and unease, turning the gallery into a theatre of encounters. Materials listed for the new works include oil, acrylic, marker, pencil, oil stick and pastel on linen, allowing drawn marks and painted surfaces to remain active within the same composition.
The opening also marked Macarrón’s arrival within Helsinki’s current exhibition programme. The city’s official cultural listing paired his presentation with Finnish artist Anetta Lukjanova’s Witches’ Flight, which opened at the same venue. Although their visual languages differ, both exhibitions use contemporary figuration to move between recognisable experience and imagined worlds.
A new chapter in an international practice
Born in Madrid in 1981, Macarrón has exhibited at institutions including CAC Málaga, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante and Museo DA2 in Salamanca. He received the ARCOmadrid Best Artist award in 2013, and his work belongs to collections including the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art and Fundación BMW.
The Helsinki opening extends that international trajectory while keeping the focus on close looking. Independent listings from Artforum Artguide and MyHelsinki confirm the reception date and the exhibition’s public run. The show is open at Makasiini Contemporary from 14 August to 6 September 2026, making the 13 August gathering not an advance announcement but the event that formally introduced the work in Helsinki.
Featured image: the historic Konepaja Train Factory complex in Helsinki, used as a contextual illustration of the exhibition venue. Photograph by Kahvilokki, 6 September 2017, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. No modifications other than WordPress resizing.
