Josep Maria Riera i Aragó

JOSEP MARIA RIERA I ARAGÓ (Barcelona, 1954).
Untitled, ca. 1995.
Etching on 2 copper plates, on Arches paper, copy 6/7.
Signed and numbered by hand.
Measurements: 113 x 411 cm.

Since in the eighties, Riera i Aragó found his own way, this one bifurcated for two spaces, the marine bottom and the cosmos, to which he imagined respectively furrowed of precarious submarines and zeppelins. Sculptures, paintings and engravings such as the one shown here make up the author's "poetic machinism", which has been shaping an enormous personal universe. They are often objects whose aesthetics are related to that of the submerged wreck, covered with an ancient patina that speaks to us of a forgotten past, or perhaps of a not so fateful future.

Painter and sculptor, Josep Riera i Aragó studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes de Barcelona. He made his individual debut in 1981, at the Artema gallery in Barcelona. Two years later he participated in the Salón de Otoño of the same city, and since then he has shown his work all over the world, in outstanding galleries in Spain, Mexico, Holland, Israel, Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Colombia and the United States. His solo exhibitions have been held at the Museum of Ceret (France, 1989), the National Library of Paris (1993), the Museum of Modern Art in Oostende (Belgium, 1997), the Joan Prats Gallery in New York (1998), the Tassende Gallery in Los Angeles (2003) and the Museum of Aalst in Belgium (2006), among others. Since 1983, Riera i Aragó has developed his plastic discourse around machinism, with a symbolic language marked by an interest in air and maritime transport, which he contemplates decontextualized, separated from their original function. At the same time, his plastic language has been enriched by the deepening of the dialogue line/plane and empty/full. Never repetitive, each "machine" he creates evokes, without pathos or condescension, a clear and comprehensive vision of humanity. His work presents a fertile iconography loaded with meaning that, endowed with a clear irony, speaks of the absurd recklessness of man's creations and the poetic justice that results when these creations turn against him. His work can be found in the MACBA in Barcelona, the Joan Miró, La Caixa and Vicent Van Gogh foundations, the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico, the Ceret and Reattu Museum in Arles, France, the Otani Museum in Japan and the Heilbronn Museum in Germany, among many others.