Joana Cera Bernad’s first exhibition at this gallery features an hourglass on a small shelf at one end of the gallery—Un segundo de tierra (One Sand Second), 2009—a minuscule device that registers the passing of only one second, derisively whittling time down to its elementary unit. With its anomalous pace, the piece seems rara avis, given the rest of the intensely meditative works on view, but it poses a question that immediately links it to them: How much sand fits in one second?

In a number of works installed on both the floor and the walls, Cera Bernad mixes stones she found with ones that she has modified. Hailing from a family of craftsmen, the artist has a profound knowledge of the specific qualities of a variety of stones and gems, and here she marshals such materials into uneven, raw forms. Polished shapes stick oddly to lichened surfaces, as in Untitled (Albarracín series), 2010, and a blend of temporalities arises, like small human gestures juxtaposed with geology’s bedrock of time. These arrangements eschew harmonious compositions but, in their own puzzling way, are the best works in the show. Coming back around to this question of sand, one must also consider how much time matter is capable of gathering.

— Javier Hontoria