Monthly Archives: December 2022

Madrid, 1986. Live and works in Barcelona.

 

Julia Varela is an artist who works on the medium and materiality of images in the age of digital technology. Her research focuses on the states adopted by the irrepressible who resist representation.

The physical form of her work analyses the globalization of industries, technological matter and the concept of visuality. Her work intensifies our physical interaction with devices and their mechanisms, providing an alternative understanding of notions such as context and desire.

Julia has been part of the Critical Images research program in Kungl Konsthögskolan Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and a master’s degree in Art Sculpture from the Royal College of Art London. Her latest exhibitions have taken place at: Centro de Cultura Contemporánea CondeDuque, Madrid; Fundació Suñol, Barcelona; Somerset House, London; Belgrade Cultural Centre BCC, Belgrade; Listost Gallery, Prague; Decad, Berlin; Yamakiwa Gallery, Japan; KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Galleri Mejan, Stockholm; Resartis, Melbourne; La Casa Encendida, Madrid; Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin; CUL DE SAC Gallery, London.

Lima, Perú (1992). Lives and Works between London and Madrid.

 

 

 

His work moves between painting, installation and public intervention, his research seeks a horizontal display of critical observations based on extensive documentary work. Daniel de la Barra tells us about the crisis of looking at nature, the representation of the landscape as an extractive process and the points of friction that exist between image, history and modernity. His multidisciplinary work gives us the opportunity to investigate the colonial conflicts that have relegated nature to a subaltern space of exploitation and domination and compose an exercise in countervisuality that reflects, from a global perspective, on the representation of the landscape as an extractive and exercise of power.

 

His work materializes in anti-landscape exercises through socio-environmental violence against neo-extractivism through a political and historical journey, reminiscent of botanical expeditions that reinforce ways of looking at the natural; like a landscape of conquest.

During 2022 he was an artist in residence at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (Italy), in addition to presenting his individual exhibitions at the Joan Prats Gallery (Barcelona) where he received the Collezione Taurisano Award for best exhibition, Ginsberg Gallery (Lima) and at the Central Museum of Lima as part of the exhibition of finalists for the XII National Painting Award. He has also exhibited individually this year at Frieze London and has received the grant as a new resident artist at the Delfina Foundation (London) and the Fundació Miró and Casa Velázquez Grant in Madrid for 2023.

 

In 2021 he developed the project “This is not a landscape. Episode II” at Homesession as part of its INVITED program and received the Catalonia Youth Art Award (Sala d’Art Jove) for publishing his book “Real Expedición Botánica” in collaboration with the Lo Pati Contemporary Art Center (Amposta) and La Panera (Lleida). He also did a residency at La Fabrique (French Alliance in Lima, Peru). In 2020 he was selected as a resident artist at Homesession (Barcelona) where he developed his project “This is not a landscape”. He exhibited “Desired Landscapes” at Arts Santa Mónica, “Considerations of the Modern City” at La Bienal de Amposta (Lo Pati Center d’Art) and his project “Subversion: Inhabiting Ruins” at El Born CCM (Barcelona). He did a residency at the Piramidon Center d’art Contemporani during 2019 and carried out several projects such as “Searching for Paititi”, Espai SubSòl, for the Barcelona Gallery Weekend, “Desired Landscapes” Escola de Estiu Walter Benjamin, Portbou or “Pateras Carnaval – Well-being trips” for Luminaria 04, Madrid. In 2018 he received a scholarship at The Nerdrum School (Sweden). He also obtained the La Escocesa (Barcelona) Research Grant in 2018 and 2019, the 2019 Art Jove Award (Sala d’Art Jove), exhibiting at the Sala d’Art Jove. That same year he received the IdeaBorn International Prize and was a finalist for the Ricard Camí Painting Prize (C.C.Terrassa). In Peru, in recent years, he has been a finalist for both the ICPNA National Contemporary Art Award and the National Painting Award (MUCEN), exhibiting at the Central Museum of Lima and the Juan Pardo Hereen Gallery.

 

Helena Almeida | Chema Madoz. Diseños habitados

Sala Sabadell Herrero, Oviedo

Del 22 de noviembre de 2022 al 26 de febrero de 2023.

 

 

A la exposición se ha incorporado la fotografía de Chema Madoz ‘S/T, 2007’, procedente de la Colección de Arte Banco Sabadell.

 

 

‘Diseños habitados’ propone una resonancia entre los trabajos de dos de los primeros autores que formaron parte de la colección de Foto Colectania, mostrando algunas claves de sus procesos creativos.

 

El título de la muestra rinde homenaje a Helena Almeida, que se toma prestado de la primera serie en la que utilizó la fotografía (Desenho habitado). También se recupera el concepto de diseño en su acepción renacentista, que se refiere tanto al dibujo como al proyecto y al proceso mental de trasladar lo imaginado por el artista a la obra. Un ejercicio que define con precisión el fascinante trabajo de estos creadores.

 

La coincidencia de que tanto Almeida como Madoz realicen bocetos posiblemente guarda relación con su interés por lo íntimo y vivencial. Los dos autores realizan infinidad de esbozos -que no siempre se convierten en obras finales- como primer paso para materializar sus ideas a través del lápiz y el papel. En esta exposición se ha querido resaltar el valor intrínseco de estos dibujos como meros y bellos bocetos, cuyo resultado expresan por medio de la fotografía.

 

Almeida interviene a veces la obra con estudiadas pinceladas o trazos de lápiz, y siempre fascina con sus ejercicios de reflexión y teatralidad. Madoz dibuja en los cuadernos personales que ha ido guardando a lo largo de los años, que se muestran por primera vez en esta exposición junto con algunos de los objetos que ensambla artesanalmente. Así, sus bocetos se convierten en objetos y sus objetos en imágenes, con su característico estilo y golpes de magia.

 

La colección de Foto Colectania reúne más de 3.000 fotografías, y quiere reflejar la diversidad de la fotografía española y portuguesa -desde 1950 hasta la actualidad- a través de un extenso conjunto de obras de cada uno de los fotógrafos representados.

 

 

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