Category Archives: 2023

With Mar Arza, Anna Irina Russell and Pere Llobera. Curated by Rosa Pera

 

We are pleased to present a new exhibition, De la rialla Del crit. Elegia del retorn* by Ràfols Casamada at the Galeria Joan Prats, curated by Rosa Pera, in the year in which is celebrated the centenary of the artist’s birth. The exhibition will also feature the participation of the artists Mar Arza, Anna Irina Russell and Pere Llobera.

 

In this exhibition will be shown a selection of works by Ràfols Casamada (1923-2009), an emblematic artist of our gallery, who had a long career in painting and poetry, and also in artistic education. Rosa Pera presents a profuse exhibition proposing a current reading of Ràfols Casamada’s work. Her approach to the artist’s creations attempts to escape the standards that we had become used to perceiving his work.

 

*The title is a fragment from a poem by Ráfols Casamada, which is hard to translate but would be literally Of the laugh Of the cry
Elegy of the return

 

 

Albert Ràfols Casamada (Barcelona, 1923-2009). Among his latest retrospective exhibitions, the following stands out: Ràfols Casamada i Maria Girona. L’equilibri possible, at the Museu de Montserrat, Montserrat; Albert Ràfols Casamada Écho. Peintures et Dessins, at the Centre d’Arts Plastiques, Espace d’art contemporain des Voûtes du Port, Royan (2018); Albert Ràfols Casamada. Pintura, at the Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona; El camino del color, Ràfols Casamada y Esteban Vicente, at the Museo Esteban Vicente, Segovia; Signe d’air. Albert Ràfols-Casamada et Paris, at the Cervantes Institute, Paris (2016); Ràfols Casamada. Pintura 1950-2005, itinerant between 2003 and 2009 in centers in Prague, Bratislava, Tirana, Lisbon, Rome, Guadalajara, Mexico and New York; Ràfols Casamada: Espacios de luz, at the Fundación Real Casa de la Moneda, Madrid (2007); Albert Ràfols Casamada, in the Abadia de Santo Domingo de Silos, Burgos; Els espais de color. Pintura 1980-2003, at the Centre Tecla Sala, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (2003); Ràfols Casamada, at the MACBA, Barcelona and at the IVAM, Valencia (2001).

 

He received the Creu de Sant Jordi from the Generalitat de Catalunya (1982), the Premi Nacional de Arts Plàstiques (1980), the appointment of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres (1991) and the National Prize of Visual Arts (2003). His work is present in numerous collections such as MACBA in Barcelona, MNAC in Barcelona, MNCARS in Madrid, Museo de Bellas Artes in Bilbao, IVAM in Valencia, Museo de Arte Abstracto in Cuenca, Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, Museo Rufino Tamayo in Mexico, Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, Juan March Foundation in Madrid, National Heritage of Madrid and Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

 

In 2023, the anthological exhibition Ràfols Casamada: obres de la Col·lecció Bassat was presented at the Nau Gaudí in Mataró, and the exhibition Ensenyar és aprendre (Teaching is learning), with art works and archival material, was presented in Eina, Barcelona. In November will also open the exhibition Ràfols Casamada. El passeig del poeta, at the Fundació Palau de Caldes d’Estrac, within the celebrations of the centenary of the artist.

 

 

Rosa Pera (Barcelona, 1966) is a curator, researcher and art critic, specialized in contemporary art, who has explored its connections with design, architecture, collective learning and public space, through exhibitions and diverse projects. As such, she has experimented in specific formats inside and outside the museum, such as Insideout: jardí del cambalache, Fundació Tàpies (2001), On Translation: la imatge, MACBA (2003), Ambulantes. Cultura Portátil, CCAC (2003), Quórum, La Capella (2004), On Translation: Die Stadt, CaixaForum (2005), Fuera de Lugar, Museu del Disseny (2015), or the Global Youth Culture Forum in Jeju, South Korea (2018-2019). She has dived into the work of figures such as Muntadas, Bill Viola, Ai Weiwei, Miralda or Buckminster Fuller, through exhibitions and projects in different museums and contexts. She was the founding director of Bòlit. Centre d’Art Contemporani. Girona (2008-2012), where she curated more than 20 exhibitions and projects in different spaces from the city and she was a member of the I Executive Committee of Culture of the ICUB-Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (2008-2012).

 

Mar Arza (Castelló, 1976) uses poetry as the main language in her work. She studied Fine Arts in Valencia and later in Pittsburg (Pensilvania, US) and Winchester (UK). In her creations, words and text predominates, as well as textures and paper.

 

Anna Irina Russell (Barcelona, 1993) through installations, sculptures and actions, investigates forms and structures of communication. The game is a fundamental part of her artistic practice, and she often invites the public to relate to her work. She has shown her creations in centers such as MACBA, CCCB, Blueproject Foundation, La Casa Encendida and Bombon Projects.

 

Pere Llobera (Barcelona, 1970) carries out his artistic practice through the mixture of different disciplines: painting, sculpture, installation. His work has a poetic tone and is mainly inspired by popular culture and music. In addition to his career as an artist, he has also been the curator of several exhibitions. He was an artist residence at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, between 2006 and 2007.

 

 

Text by Rosa Pera

 

 

 

 

 

Cabello/Carceller

 

We are pleased to participate to LOOP FAIR 2023, which takes place in Hotel Almanac Barcelona, from 21th till 23th of November, 2023. We are presenting a recent work by Cabello/Carceller Una película sin ninguna intención, 2022 (A Film With No Intention), a 3-channel video installation that will takes on a particular resonance in the hotel room.

 

“Una película sin ninguna intención is inspired by a brief fragment — only a few seconds — of the film Les rendez-vous d’Anna by Chantal Akerman. The action places the protagonist alone in a nondescript hotel room. Anna has just entered. She goes to the windows and, before opening one of them, draws back a sheer curtain in order to observe an industrial city outside. The scene does not reproduce the original script of the film. If it had been faithful to what was written, the world that the protagonist contemplates from the window would have been visually shared with the public; but ultimately, in the images we can only see the protagonist from behind, looking outward.

 

 What interested us most about this seemingly insignificant scene was its ability to evoke the life experience of those of us who, due to different circumstances, do not fit into the hegemonic model of coexistence. Isolation, incomprehension, distance, body. Anna leaves that room and pretends to interact with the others. In Una película sin ninguna intención, A. (a polysemic abbreviation in reference to Franz Kafka’s character K., to whom Akerman also may have referred) occupies an indefinite space in front of three windows, a sheer curtain, and an opaque curtain. Unlike Anna, A. never leaves that physical space.”

 

Cabello/Carceller

 

Juan Uslé

[The Rivers of the World]

 

Exhibition from 16th to 25th of November
Opening and presentation, Thursday, 16th of November from 6 p.m. With the presence of the artist and the editor.

 

“El libro parece uno de los objetos más bellos por ser un objeto paradójico:
a base de multiplicar y multiplicar los planos multiplica lo profundo.”
[The book seems to be one of the most beautiful objects because it is a paradoxical object:
by multiplying and multiplying the planes it multiplies the Depth] (Oliván, 2023)

 

We are pleased to present at Galeria Joan Prats Juan Uslé’s next publishing project with By Publications, in which the artist has made 200 new paintings as covers, along with a selection of his works.

 

This is a unique editorial project, a unique journey through art and expression that immerses us in the world of Juan Uslé, accompanied by the poetry of Lorenzo Oliván. In this edition, the covers come to life in an unusual way, transforming into canvases where the magic of painting merges with the depth of photography and the written word.

 

Each book is a work of art in itself, reflecting the personal vision and sensitivity of Juan Uslé. These 200 copies are created individually, like the pieces of a puzzle, like drops of water that come together to form a river.

 

ARTIST BOOK DETAIL

 

By Publications is an independent publishing house based in Barcelona, specialized in the edition, production and international distribution of art, photography and design books.

 

Juan Uslé (Santander, 1954) lives and works between New York and Saro. He is one of the artists with the greatest international projection in our country, whose career has been linked to the city of New York since the eighties. He has received recognitions such as the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation drawing prize (2020) and the Premio Nacional de Artes Plásticas de España (2002). He has presented his work at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005), at Documenta 9 in Kassel (1992) and the São Paulo Biennale (1985). His latest individual exhibitions include De luz y sangre, Sala Verónicas, Murcia (2023), Eye and landscape, BombasGens Center d’Art, Valencia (2021), Notes on SQR, MACE, Museu d’Art Contemporani d’Eivissa, Ibiza (2019), and Juan Uslé. Dunkles licht, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany, which traveled to the CGAC in Santiago de Compostela under the title Juan Uslé: Luz Escura (2014). His pictorial and photographic work has also been exhibited in Es Baluard, Palma de Mallorca, Marta Herford, Germany (2010); Kunsthalle Emden, Germany (2009); MUDAM, Luxembourg, ARTIUM, Vitoria (2008); CAC, Málaga, Domus Artium, Salamanca, Fundació La Caixa, Barcelona (2007); Salvador Dalí Museum, St Petersburg Florida, Albuquerque Museum, New Mexico (2006); Marcelino Botín Foundation, Santander, IMMA, Dublin (2004); MNCARS, Madrid (2003); Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany (2002); Serralves Museum, Porto (2001).

Lola Lasurt

14/09, 18.00h-20.30h Opening

18.30h: visit by Lola Lasurt with Esther Guillén and Neus Miró

25/10, 19.30h: visit by Lola Lasurt

10/11, 19.00h: finissage and visit by Lola Lasurt

 

Lola Lasurt’s project for the upcoming Barcelona Gallery Weekend wants to vindicate abstract artistic practices that interest the artist through her painting, she tries to paint abstraction figuratively.

 

The project has two parts with which Lasurt approaches pictorially, first, the Escuela de Vallecas (1920-39) and, later, the ceramics of Esther Guillén (Lleida, 1943). This artist has produced relevant and little-known work since the 1960s, characterized by an abstraction based on organic forms that, according to Lasurt, seems to be influenced by the artistic avant-garde prior to the Spanish Civil War and also by ceramic artistic practices that took place during the last years of the dictatorship and the first years of the democracy. Many of these practices were influenced by the lessons that Angelina Alòs taught from the thirties to the eighties at the Escola del Treball in Barcelona.

 

A selection of ceramics by Esther Guillén will be presented in the exhibition, together with the works by Lola Lasurt. Lasurt thus composes an exhibition device that generates a genealogy of practices through formally connected works and elements.

 

Text by Neus Miró (cultural manager and independent curator)

 

Map and artworks list

L’Antiga Farinera

Ctra. C66, 304, 17121 Corçà, La Bisbal d’Empordà, Girona

Google maps

 

Hours:

July from Thursday to Sunday, 5:00-9:00 p.m.

August from Tuesday to Sunday, 5:00-9:00 p.m.

 

Activities:

Saturday July 8, 7:30 p.m. Muntadas, ‘Que vienen las suecas’ screening with artist discussion

Saturday July 29, 7:30 p.m. Oliver Frank Chanarin, ‘A Perfect Sentence’ presentation of artist’s latest book in collaboration with Terranova

Saturday August 12, 7:30 p.m. Concert by cellist Oriol Prats (Capellades, 1989). Programme: L. Berio, J-S Bach, Z. Kodály. A collaboration with Schubertíada.

 

For the third consecutive year, we are delighted to present the collaborative project of Bombon Projects, Galeria Joan Prats, and NoguerasBlanchard.

 

Once again, the three galleries join forces, from June to August, to give rise to a proposal away from the cities and their galleries of origin. This year, the project travels to a new, larger space: l’Antiga Farinera, a former flour factory from 1822 built around a tower dated from the 12th and 13th centuries.

 

Located in Corçà, a small medieval village in the region of Baix Empordà (Girona), l’Antiga Farinera’s 500 square metres will hold an exhibition from the programs of the three galleries, coupled with a selection of guest artists from different generations. The proposal will revolve around the concept of movement, and will be accompanied by parallel activities with artists and other cultural agents throughout the summer period.

 

Text by Ángela Segovia

 

 

 

Pablo del Pozo

June 15, 7pm : visit with the artist

July 20, 7pm : visit with the artist in conversation with Gisela Chillida

 

 

Before today my body was useless.

Now it’s tearing at its square corners.

Anne Sexton, “The Kiss“, Love Poems

 

We are pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Pablo del Pozo at Galeria Joan Prats, entitled Mi boca florece como un corte [My mouth blooms like a cut], which includes tapestries and recent sculptures in different fabrics and sizes.

 

After his exhibition Cuando iba, iba con ella, y cuando volvía, me encontré con ella (2018) at the gallery with Aïda Andrés Rodrigálvarez – in which Pablo del Pozo used materials such as clay, plaster, pigments and recovered objects, to talk about the scarcity of the life as an everyday reality-, now the artist opts for a new line of research in which he adopts unprecedented themes and materials in his work.

 

The title of the exhibition belongs to the first verse from the poem “The Kiss” by the American writer Anne Sexton (1928-1974). The fortuitous find of this example of poetry, whose core revolves around the idea that wounds can also cause beauty, has become a catalyst to take Poetry -in capital letters- as a form of understanding, passion and creation, especially poetry written by women authors, among which the poets Anne Sexton, Emily Dickinson or Anne Carson stand out.

 

Pablo del Pozo presents in this exhibition a multidisciplinary project focused on the germination of life and the celebration of desire in a new nature, in a new habitat. It is a formal investigation, mainly sculptural, for which he used textile materials, from twine and jute fabric to lycra and wool, made with some traditional techniques, mainly crochet, and also others more moderns like hand tufting. The artist has created the works by hand, in a laborious process that has required a long time to produce them and which, at the same time, has allowed him to revalue what are considered “feminine labors”.

 

The works of Mi boca florece como un corte are characterized by their organic forms, which refer to organisms such as flowers, hanging plants, but also to viscera or moist bodies, and whose conception has drawn on branches such as botany and zoology. For the wool, fabric and rope sculptures, together with the tapestries, Pablo del Pozo has based himself on the microscopic wefts of plant and human cells, which he has tried to replicate through sewing patterns. In the case of the lycra pieces, the petals are transfigured into a texture reminiscent of shiny skin in a state of perspiration, a sheen that refers to costume fabric and party clothes, to the enjoyment of life. The structure of the flowers – the reproductive organs of plants that attract fauna to expand and colonize the territory – leads us to the idea of desire as one of the central points of the exhibition.

 

Based on these images, Pablo del Pozo creates a natural environment where he can offer a haven that brings death and life closer. And it is that, as the writer and editor Patricia Castro affirms, about the display, “The multiplicity of the alive attacks the certainties of a world paved where the flowers have to grow in the hard shoulder. Are prevented from sprouting. Plant, animal, men or women now don’t mean the same. The end is near, do you feel it? Embrace it. And don’t be scared of the unknown. Welcome back to the life.”

 

Pablo del Pozo (Badajoz, 1994) lives and works in Barcelona. He graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona (2017). He has been selected at the Valls Biennial, Guasch-Coranty Award (2017), or which he has been part of the exhibition at the Centre Tecla Sala in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat (2018). He has been part of the circuit of the Jeune Création Européenne Biennial (2017-9) with exhibitions in museums in various European cities: Montrouge, France (2017); Hjorring, Denmark; Cēsis, Latvia; Cluj, Romania (2018); Como, Italy; Figueres, Spain, and Amarante, Portugal (2019). He has also received the creation award from the Sala d’art Jove de la Generalitat de Catalunya (2017), and he exhibited in the group show in this space in June 2018. He has recently been nominated for the Miquel Casablancas Award (2019), his work has been exhibited at Fabra i Coats, and, in the solo show Al muerto, tiempo encima, curated by Jordi Garrido, at the Fundació Arranz Bravo in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

 

Video of the exhibition

 

Art Brussels 2023

Art Brussels 2023 | Galeria Joan Prats,

Booth 5A 26 with NOGUERASBLANCHARD

 

Rediscovery programme, a presentation of works by

JOAN BROSSA

PEREJAUME

 

Art Brussels preview:  ENG    FR

 

Our booth on Artsy

 

 

Joan Prats and Nogueras Blanchard’s proposal for Art Brussels 2023 introduces a dialogue between the work of Joan Brossa (Barcelona, 1919 – 1998) and Perejaume (Sant Pol de Mar, 1957). In 1975, Perejaume was fascinated by the first monographic study of Brossa’s poetical work. The interest was mutual, since Brossa was astonished by the combination of surrealism and romanticism depicted in Perejaume’s early work. Being artists of different generations, Brossa and Perejaume crossed paths in their unique approach to poetry through objects, gestures and visual representations.

 

For Art Brussels we present a selection of historical works – from 1980 to 1990 – a key moment for both Brossa and Perejaume. During this period, Brossa mainly produced “object-poems”; artworks that combine everyday life objects that he decontextualizes from their original function to expand their critical nature. Likewise, Perejaume moved from “painting-painting” to “depainting”. Like Brossa, Perejaume used to manipulate his materials and symbols in a way that does not always indicate a specific point of view but rather approaches the state of the image through inversions of meaning.

 

These works by Brossa and Perejaume want to enhance the affinity between their ways of seeing poetry and influence. For Perejaume, painting is an exercise of occultation, of veiling with a succession of layers. Metamorfosador attends to this logic by pointing out the origin. By covering the stretcher with a canvas, Perejaume reveals the pictorial gesture of the background. The potential transformation of objects and their concealment are also reflected in Brossa’s object-poems. Eclipsi or Puzzle cease to be objects to become poetic artifacts that are born as an ironic game that generates estrangement in the viewer. Likewise, Projeccions, by Perejaume, and Sense paisatge, by Brossa, hide, show and superimpose points of view, images and objects to rebel against rigid meanings. 

 

Opening 29 March, 7 pm, with the presence of the artist

 

 

We are pleased to present the first solo exhibition of Tadáskía (Rio de Janeiro, 1993) at Galeria Joan Prats.

 

rara ocellet (Rare bird) brings together a selection of Tadáskía’s latest works developed during her residency at the Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria) and Barcelona between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. The exhibition rara ocellet presents drawings, canvases, sculptures, photographs and a video installation and is accompanied by a text by Ingrid Blanco Díaz (Havana, 1972), independent curator and researcher based in Barcelona.

 

This exhibition is the door to the almost mystical imaginary of the artist, where she not only represents her work, but also her relationship with the world. The works that we will show transport us to a lively and colorful universe to offer us the dreams of her childhood or the intimacy of her family. In the exhibition, the figure of the bird stands out. “Ocellets is an affectionate way of calling birds in Catalan. It is also the name of the square next to where I was in Barcelona for the first time. Which made me think of the people and the food in the same way I think of the birds that migrate from one place to another, soon changing language and coexistence” (Tadáskía).

 

In the words of Ingrid Blanco: “rara ocellet brings together several of the narrative processes through which the artist unveils the tools she deploys to imagine and to take hold of herself. Her work is a constant research on her place in the world and how she relates to it.  Through her performances, in her relationship with objects, materials, shapes, textures and colors, she expresses her identity and reveals the decisions she makes to build and exist. The community, the family, the body, emotional ties, forms of interconnection, life experiences, the magical and the ancestral are some of the axes that channel her work.”

 

Tadáskía’s production can be grouped into what curator Clarissa Diniz (Recife, Brazil, 1985) called “families,” sets of works with similar characteristics that create a relationship between them. The artist is interested in presenting the spirit of things, in a procedure located between figuration and abstraction; where the simple becomes mystical. In her drawings of volatile and sensitive qualities, often made with simple materials such as recycled paper, colored pencils or nail polish, singular assemblages coexist, sometimes complementary, sometimes dissident. “Depending on where we are, there can be transformations in form, color, line.” (Tadáskía)

 

Tadáskía is a visual artist, writer, trans and black. Her imaginary is backed by visible and invisible things. Whether in drawings, photographs, installations, textile works or “apparitions,” Tadáskía establishes a relationship with matter that can emerge from the encounter, creating around her Afrodiasporic imaginaries and a syncretic spirituality.  In her works, the artist suggests other notions of time and space as opposed to binarisms, also raising questions in the fields of form, line and color.

 

Tadáskía (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1993) lives and works between Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. She holds a degree in Visual Arts from UERJ (2012-2016) and a Master’s degree in Education from UFRJ (2019-2021). In 2022 she had her first solo exhibition noite e dia in Sé, São Paulo, and also in Europe, during her residency at Homesession, Barcelona. She has participated in recent group exhibitions at MAM, São Paulo, 2022; ISLAA, New York; Triangle Asterides, Marseille; Framer Framed, Amsterdam; Madragoa, Lisbon; Casa de Cultura do Parque, São Paulo; Casa Zalszupin, São Paulo (2022); Pivô, São Paulo; Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, São Paulo; Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo; Casa da Cultura da Comporta; EAV Parque Lage (2021); Museu de Arte do Rio de Janeiro (2020-21); Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro; EAV Parque Lage, Rio de Janeiro (2019-2020). In 2023 she has been in residence at Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg.

 

Thanks to Loop, Homesession

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARCOmadrid 2023

Galeria Joan Prats

Booth 9C06

 

 

For our booth at ARCOmadrid 2023, we present a selection of pieces by our artists, Erick Beltrán, Alfons Borrell, Cabello/Carceller, Victoria Civera, Luis Gordillo, Alicia Kopf, Lola Lasurt, Perejaume, Pablo del Pozo, Fernando Prats, Caio Reisewitz, José María Sicilia, Juan Uslé.

 

 

For the first time, we will present a canvas and drawings by Brazilian artist Tadáskía.

 

 

Preview here

 

 

Alfons Borrell

We are pleased to present the new exhibition by Alfons Borrell at Galeria Joan Prats, entitled Entrar al mar i sortir-ne blau [Enter the sea and come out blue], which we will inaugurate next Saturday, January 28, from 11 am to 2 pm, and where we will show paintings on canvas and on paper made since 1959 until 2017.

On the occasion of the exhibition, Valentín Roma has written: 

In one of his most celebrated essays, entitled On Nothing, the American poet Mark Strand wonders why this inclination to substantiate emptiness is due, to fill it with words, gestures, images.

Strand points out at least three tasks for language when it is challenged from the nakedness: one is a certain degree of obstinacy; another, lightness as a foundation against the definitive; the last one, a kind of opening towards that which, while not being a mystery, is not easily nameable either, something similar to a meticulousness pending precision.

The previous triad could well serve to bring us closer to the work of Alfons Borrell, to his persistence –so little exemplary and so resounding– regarding some of his own arguments through which to develop the practice of painting; to his interventions for the sake of that never fatuous or purely stylistic lightness, a kind of material ethics; to his intense way of erecting the details to make them essential.

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