The Silence Between Art and the Observer

There are moments when art stops being an object and becomes presence
when a brushstroke seems to breathe, when a shadow inside a gallery feels alive.
I remember the quiet air inside the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo of Panama,
the light falling over the works of Roberto Fabelo,
and that strange, magnetic stillness that lives only between a work of art and the person standing before it.

Photographing Fabelo’s pieces wasn’t about capturing them
it was about understanding how they occupy space,
how their human forms, animal spirits, and hybrid dreams extend beyond the canvas.
The room was heavy with meaning, yet silent
as if the paintings themselves were aware of being observed.

Each frame became a conversation: between the artist’s vision,
the institution that gave it a home, and the lens that translated it into memory.
Back then, photography inside museums wasn’t common;
it was trust, not protocol, that allowed me to move quietly through the space,
guided only by light and respect.

Looking back now, these images feel like a document of time
not only of an exhibition, but of an era when art and honesty still shared the same breath.
No social media, no hashtags, no noise just the dialogue between creation and witness.

Photographs by Javier Shirley
Works by Roberto Fabelo
Photographed at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC) Panama.

Disclaimer

These photographs were taken by Javier Shirley as part of a commissioned documentation of Roberto Fabelo’s exhibition at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC) Panama.
All rights to the artworks belong exclusively to the artist, Roberto Fabelo.
Images are presented here for editorial and cultural purposes only.