With one of her first works—a book covered with pins (which has become something of a Rosetta stone for anyone trying to come to terms with young Spanish art)—Alicia Martin set out on the path she has followed as an artist ever since. Her works re-create an inner world at odds with its surroundings. She seems to have learned from Meret Oppenheim and Lucas Samaras, among others, how to use expressive materials metaphorically, to capture something of her difficult relation to reality. Adopting the spirit and iconography of the Surrealist object, Martin has constructed some powerful pieces, which