Virtual Exhibition
Gregori Iglesias Iglesias
Sense silenci
Start 17/09/2009
Exhibited from September 17th, 2009 to Decembre 19th, 2009 in Fundació Privada Vila Casas
A sideways connection between Paul Auster and Gregori Iglesias
It is not at all clear that our lives have a story-line, a beginning or an end.
Enrique Vila-Matas[1]
Little Pol draggs along a copy of The Moon Palace. You do not understand how, but out of all the books, his hands always, inevitably, alight on a crucial work. Now this volume has been turned into a jumble of lines, colour splashing the blackness of the type.
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That week I was too busy to see anyone on Tuesday afternoon, but when you put your head round my office door I had to make an exception. It was the week when Miquel Barceló was about to descend on the gallery. In a hardly audible...
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
In general terms, this artist from Lleida shuns references to reality. His work arises out of his imaginary world, growing from it. Dogs are a constant motif in his work. Sometimes they are represented as proud predators, while at other times they seem to be victims. In this painting we perceive reminiscences of Francis Bacon. The pinks and reds give the figures a more aggressively carnal appearance, with the chaotic composition suggesting a complex narrative notion that seems to arise from out of the darkest, proudest and most self-critical part of the artist. We understand the figure of the dog as the artist depicting himself. Sometimes his dogs are submissive and downtrodden, while in other works they are starving predators, allegories of the human condition.
Sense títol
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
Never-ending tunnels leading on to an uncertain ending. Characters drifting through the scene, coming and going with no clear destination, taking up an apparently desolate space. Iglesias’ series of subway tunnels seems to be a metaphor of existential angst, characterised by uncertainty, depersonalization and a future that is yet to be discovered. This work shows us a confusing, dark space. The perspective guides the viewer to the very depths of the work, inviting us to fully explore the deepest, hidden corners of the space the artist has created. As tends to happen in his work, Iglesias provokes the viewer, though this does not mean it is lacking in content. Rather, the artist uses it to incite the viewer to seek out the bleakest domains of his world.
Sense títol
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
The subjects dealt with in Iglesias’ paintings do not seem to fit. He goes from portrayals of his own memory to dialogues with the great masters, from dogs to libraries. In these libraries, quite specifically, the artist seeks to create pure, sacred spaces. Libraries emerge as homes to knowledge and wisdom. Even so, all these different subjects have as a common feature the artist’s unmistakeable, internal struggle. Iglesias uses creation as an effective weapon in what seems to be an ongoing research project, as spiritual as it is formal. His rebellious nature is present in these energized lines, in these monochrome ranges contrasted by reds, the apparently chaotic composition of the sketching leading us on to the orderly figuration.
Sense títol
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
The artist’s portraits often seem to be composed of many layers of the personality of the subject. Quite beyond the formal aesthetics of a face, Iglesias dissects the human being, separating and analysing it for later reformulations in his reinterpretation of the subject’s psyche. The portraits are complex, as are the subjects they treat, composed as they are of multiple facets. Sometimes this is so in the most literal sense of the term, since he composes them by separating his tracing with layers of varnish laid down between them. The psychology of the portrait appears as a central feature of his work. The energetic drawing, in some moments dubitative while in others precise and incisive, makes up what seems to be the deepest psychological space of his characters. Though they are sometimes anonymous, they seem to convey to us the full depth of the artist’s reflection on his own being. We perceive the artist persistently researching into greater understanding of the human condition in general, and his own in particular.
Fusilamiento
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
Fusilamiento [Firing Squad] is one of the pieces belonging to the series Diálogo con maestros [Dialogue with Masters]. In this painting, Iglesias reinterprets Francisco de Goya’s Los fusilamientos del 3 de mayo [The 3rd of May 1808 in Madrid or The Executions]. In the foreground, we see the very figures Goya used in his painting, although Iglesias’ piece has the soldiers presented as an amalgam of dripping red in energetic lines. The identity of the soldiers is lost in their shared persona, as if they were the presence of a single death. In the background we see subway tunnels, infinite and dim, as depicted by the artist in many of his works. Interior and exterior coincide in this piece, charged as it is with latent contrasts. The chromatic range seems to extend itself beyond the artist’s usual employ of black, grey and red.
La última cena I
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
Once again, the artist sets up a dialogue with emblematic works from the history of art. This piece is inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper. The similar composition also recalls some of Iglesias’ other works, such as the series of libraries. With his decidedly energetic brushwork, Iglesias draws from this iconographic image while agitating the atmosphere with greys, erasures and impastos. The work also recalls certain paintings by Francis Bacon, such as Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, in itself a reinterpretation of a classic work by Velázquez. In this work Iglesias picks up on the full breadth of this historic legacy, making it his own.
Sense títol
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
The horror vacui that dominates many of Gregori Iglesias’ paintings is balanced out by the absence of chromatic range. Many of his pieces are monochromatic, while sometimes drawn lines are preferred over the technique of painting. Most of his pieces seem to find the artist himself in a process of self-discovery. These spaces arising from within Iglesias, with their apparent order, seem to surge from the impulse and vitality of his disorderly, pulsating treatment of the painting surface. Yet the artist has a clear will here to delve deeper into himself, though this has little to do with egocentrism. Instead, it is grounded in a process of deep reflection, as if his painting were way of researching into his own raison d’être.
Sense títol
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
Iglesias’ work often involves the application of material features, which are sometimes transformed into an independent art object. In this work the central red impasto has its own presence, coming alive. The violence of this image is, as with many Iglesias paintings, a rebellious creative impulse, as if in the creative act a certain mystical action were to be taking place, beginning at the same time as part of the artist’s internal struggle. Iglesias exhibits, explores, self-evaluates and fights against himself in each and every one of his works, allowing viewers to reflect on their own internal violence.
Sense títol
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
A great many faces compose this piece. The unrecognizable characters seem to saturate the scene with anonymous presences. Anxiety and oppression emanate from the work, in consonance with Iglesias’ imaginary world, whether in turmoil, rebellious, or just as well combative. The viewers in this case become the centre of attention of the grotesque, scrutinizing faces. We are subject to their judgement, as if the artist were able to place us in his position before the canvas. With a self-critical voice and emphasizing existential angst, he has us participate in his work, inviting us to put ourselves in the skin of the artist.
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
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Mixed media on canvas
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Mixed media on canvas
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
Mis padres
Painting
Mixed media on canvas
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas
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Painting
Mixed media on canvas