Reviews
Gino Rubert: Altarpieces and Earthly Delights of the 21st Century
Gino Rubert’s new exhibition at Galería Senda succeeds in transmitting an exceptional sensation of freedom.
Two Geniuses Face to Face: Fages and Dalí
You can never really read the work of Salvador Dalí without knowing the literary legacy of Carles Fages de Climent. This is shown by Dalí expert Josep Playà in his book, “Fages Dalí, geniuses and friends”.
The Polyptych of the Vallès
“Vallès: manufacturing pasts, manufacturing futures” is a project in which Claudio Zulian uses the memory of the working class of the county of Vallès – an area historically and politically affiliated to the so-called “red belt” of Barcelona.
In the name of Picasso
This show in the Barcelona museum reinterprets the different facets of the artist from the point of view of ten contemporary creators. The political Picasso, the passionate Picasso and the intellectual Picasso, all covered in the story which unfolds under the curatorship of Rosa Martinez.
Lluís Hortalà or the trickery of the gaze
When you visit the Lluís Hortalà exhibition at Tecla Sala in L’Hospitalet you have to be ready for a double set of rules: those of the eye, subjected to the logical trickery of trompe-l’oeil, and those of the concept, articulated in the solid story about the exhibition by Oriol Fontdevila. But one step at a time.
Richard Learoyd, unsettling and monumental
Learoyd’s photographs are made in a very original way. It is not that he has a camera in his studio but his camera is a room in his studio.
Antoni Fabrés: Recovery Operation
The MNAC, being the national museum that it is, had the job of rescuing the wok of Antoni Fabrés – a versatile and effective artist who moved on from the academic and Orientalist approach of his early works.
The past chapter in La Capella
Entitled “Cerrar abriendo” (Close by opening), the sixth scene of “La Capella 25 Years After”, an exhibition in instalments which has told the story of this centre dedicated to emerging art since the month of January, through the artists that have exhibited there.
From a Cigarette Lighter to a Portable Lamp: the Design Museum revitalises its collection
Did you know that the refillable plastic Clipper lighter, which is sold all over the world, was designed by Enric Sardà in the early 1970s? Or that the cuddly Tous teddy bear was created by Rosa Maria Oriol in 1985 with no intention of it becoming a jewellery icon?
Portraits by August Sander: appearances that don’t deceive?
The August Sander retrospective at La Virreina is exceptional in its rigorous respect for the original structure of the major project the photographer worked on during the early 1900s: People of the 20th Century.
In Combat for the Love of Art
Anyone who enters the exhibition Cinc anys a les trinxeres (Five years in the trenches) by Jesús Galdón, kind of phylacterical mirror hanging on the wall, is immediately reflected in the doorway of the El Quadern Robat gallery.
Time is on the side of the vanquished
Just when the United States once again demonstrate their untamed meddling in the internal affairs of South America and when Pedro Sánchez recognises and legitimates a self-proclaimed president in Venezuela, Macba is opening the necessary and timely exhibition Undefined territories. Perspectives on colonial legacies.
Looking Towards the Heavens from the Refuge of Art
This walk through the magnificent and sadly posthumous exhibition by Jordi Fulla at Can Framis is a silent one. It couldn’t be any other way.
The Pluralistic Imaginary of La Capella
Global cities, futuristic dystopias and universal figures of the literary and linguistic imaginary all come together in La Capella in a group show with ten heterogeneous proposals around the idea of layers or of accumulated time.
Watch out for the Statues!
Pedro Azara’s project for the Catalonia Pavilion at the Venice Biennale confronts the viewer with their own emotional weakness with a series of visceral reactions of love and hate provoked by the images.
Exorcism on Paper
Fourteen works on paper are exhibited at N2 gallery by eleven outstanding artists, united by their “aesthetic tendencies broken by war, interior exile, different attempts to preserve their creative freedom and the dawning following the start of democracy”.
Girona Pays Homage to Pioneering Photographer Valentí Fargnoli
What is it about turn of the century photographs that means we always love them? Three exhibitions revisit the collection of Valentí Fargnoli, he son of Italians settled in Girona who left valuable ethnographic work and heritage photography.
The Invisible Magic of Quantum Physics
The ambitious exhibition “Quantum” which is showing at the CCCB attempts to explain the theory of quantum physics, including a dialogue between science and art.
Overflowing cities: too much mass tourism in Barcelona?
Who hasn’t flown to another European city on a budget flight and then stayed in an AirBnB? Who has never done “acritical tourism” or “place consumption” for a couple of days? It is not easy to raise the debate about the excess of tourism without falling into contradictions.
First Scan of an Illegal Abortion
Laia Abril has made the problem of illegal abortion universal and contemporary through her artistic project “On Abortion”, which is currently being shown at the Foto Colectania Foundation in Barcelona.
Damià Campeny in Mataró
“Reflextions. The Work of Damià Campeny”, at Ca l’Arenas of Mataró, is a show that emphasises the artist’s working method and his context.
Max Beckmann: paradise lost and the strangeness of exile
Max Beckmann’s lost paradise was not a Utopia, but a certain desirable and possible harmony, one that was destroyed by imperialist urges.
Mutant Scenes at La Capella
La Capella is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a space for the promotion of emerging art. And it is doing so in episodes. Here we have the fourth.
Three Art Books for a Desert Island (and 2)
In anticipation of the Day of the book for Sant Jordi, we asked our “Mirador de les Arts” contributors which three art books they would take with them on a desert island. Their answers are surprising.