Refugi de Bèsties: Jaume Roig at the Torre Canyamel

efugi de Bèsties is an exhibition by Jaume Roig at the Torre de Canyamel, a 13th century Gothic tower on the east side of the island. The exhibition features a mix of ceramics, sculptures, paintings and objects installed across three floors, with the soft lighting and the raw stone walls of the tower enhancing the experience of the work on view. The torre has had many lives - likely with Moorish origins, and then in the 13th century, after King Jaume’s conquest, it served as a watchtower for invading enemies and as a fortress for protection. The title of the show, Refugi de Bèsties, is partly a play on words – a reference to the tower’s use as a place of refuge for both people and animals, but also, as the artist says, “as a symbol for my own inner beasts.”

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Living and working in the countryside, Roig’s work is intimately connected to his surroundings and his relationship to the Mallorcan landscape. His muted, often raw and unglazed ceramic vessels and sculptures reveal connections to stones, rocks, and earth. He often uses natural pigments in his paintings, which can serve as a wider canvas to convey his vision of the world around him. For Refugi de Bèsties, Roig has experimented with new materials, including wood, stone and metal, and much of the work takes on figurative elements, including sculptures and paintings of animals, such as goats, bulls, owls or herons, and mythical-like horned figures that reference the demonio, an important figure in Mallorcan traditions. Roig explains “it had been a long time since I’d done figurative work, but I found a way to depict them that is related to my painting style, which continues in the more minimalist or essentialist vein.”

Jaume Roig, Refugi de Bèsties, Torre de Canyamel

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hroughout the show, Roig presents both the microscopic and macroscopic versions of the world, from small dots and objects to larger-scale landscapes. The exhibition begins with a series of totemic sculptures of stacking ceramic orbs that nest into each other, a gateway that brings us into the darkened rooms of the space. One sculpture that feels particularly symbolic is the carved wooden demonio-like figure with horns that balances a perfectly rounded ceramic sphere on its head. It stands in front of a raw, unstretched canvas that features a full moon balanced by a small red circle, a recurring motif in Roig’s paintings. The sphere on his head could be meant to evoke the precarious balance between man and nature or perhaps it is more ritualistic. “The moon, beasts or the dimoni have protected and purified the ancestral community through dance, fire and noise in rituals of fertility and renewal, allowing invisible forces to be expressed, and balance and imbalance to be represented beyond good and evil,” explain the curators. Other sculptures, including the rounded ceramics mounted onto metal legs or the felled wooden sculptures with metal legs suggest a transformation between man and animal or a reminder of their coexistence. There is a circularity to Roig’s work, from the materials he uses as well as in his intention. He reminds us that everything comes from nature and can return to it as well.

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Refugi de Bèsties reveals new directions within Roig's work – the exhibition as a space for experimenting, expanding on his ideas and opening up his practice to new directions. Refugi de Bèsties was curated by ABA ART, as part of the ESTIU 2026 season, and is on view through October 31, 2026.

"It had been a long time since I’d done figurative work, but I found a way to depict them that is related to my painting style, which continues in the more minimalist or essentialist vein.”