MARGARITA ZAFRILLA OLAYO—DANCING & PAINTING. Art & Talking, Chipping Norton September 2025

Art & Talking is pleased to present DANCING & PAINTING, an exhibition by London- based artist, dancer, and choreographer Margarita Zafrilla Olayo. Born out of a lifetime dedicated to the art of dancing and movement studies—both classicaland contemporary—this show is a constellation of paintings, sculptural forms, dancemeditations, film stills, and choreographic traces—where movement becomes matter, and matter remembers motion.

The starting point is the choreographic practice and series of artworks TiLTING VERTICALITIES, an immersive shared experience involving quiet movement, painting, and sculpture. An embodied process and a five-metre painting, rendered on an elastic-loop- sculpture made of natural rubber, TiLTING VERTICALITIES echoes the healing and restorative qualities of latex coming from rubber trees. Performers and/or members of the audience are invited to step into the latex sculpture, and find balance with the other or multiple others within the shared elastic space. As conversations emerge from these participatory sessions, the works illuminate dynamics of trust, grounding, interdependence, tension, rest, equilibrium, peace and support.

DANCING & PAINTING stretches these concepts across different media. The paintings communicate visual traces and felt residues of dance encounters. Rendered from memory rather than from observation, these are playful meditations on the internal sources ofmovement, unfolding through a rich interplay of inks and textures. The photographic prints are yet another manifestation of dance transfiguring into other media. Here, dance inscriptions interact with paint and film.

Throughout the duration of DANCING & PAINTING, Zafrilla Olayo will be sharing her practice in different formats and events, transforming the gallery into a safe space, where the artist embodies and sustains alternatives for exercising peaceful states in a shared space. Visitors and attendants are invited to witness, dwell, and—in some instances—welcome to participate.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Classically trained, Margarita Zafrilla Olayo is a dancer, choreographer and artist. Her performances, dances, choreographies and artworks have been presented internationally, at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome—MACRO, Tate Britain, Sadler’s Wells, Siobhan Davies Studios, Independent Dance, Tate Modern, Barbican Art Gallery, Tate Archive, Hayward Gallery (UK), Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company—Meet The Snake, Tanzinitiative (Germany), Ritratti D’Artista (Italy), Zona Maco 2022 (Mexico), Northern Sustainable Futures (Sweden), Loop Barcelona, and at The 58th Venice Biennale’s Giudecca Art District Flagship exhibition amongst others. Born in Madrid, she has lived and worked in London since 1999.

margaritazafrilla.com

Margarita Zafrilla Olayo is grateful for the support of Pato Bosich, Elsa Coustou, Marie Von Papen, Chris Eccleston, Susanna Jacobs, Kellie Strom, Samia Ashraf, Mara Polgovsky, John Crampton, Julia Gale, Michael Bucknell, and specials thanks to photographer Yanis Angel for his collaboration with photo documenting ‘Head Inside A Painting Dancing, aka Poncho’/wearable art, exhibited in the gallery.