A Tree and Its Shadow is a retrospective exhibition of the work of Jim Amaral (Pleaseanton, 1933), unfolding an intimate and monumental journey through six decades of artistic practice. This ambitious show brings together sixty years of uninterrupted creation, offering a panoramic vision of Amaral’s enigmatic universe, from the very place where his work has taken root: the house where many of the pieces gathered here germinated, and which he shares with Olga, his life companion.
The House is not merely an architectural space; it is a living organism that breathes with the memories, secrets, and emanations of those who have inhabited it. It is, at once, both refuge and mirror. Its walls contain objects and echoes: voices, gestures, decisions that have left their imprint within. Yet the House is not limited to preserving; it is in constant transformation. It feeds on the experiences that cross it, on the shadows nesting in its corners, on the presences—visible or not—that give it meaning. From this perspective, the Amaral house becomes an extension of the artist’s creative body, a living archive of his thought and sensitivity.
