Lluís Barba

LLUÍS BARBA (Barcelona, 1952).
"Biodiversity".
Mixed media on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner. Signed and titled on the back.
Measurements: 104 x 84 cm.
His work is a reflection of society and a critique of the problems it generates. "Art is a privileged platform and those of us who have access have to take advantage of it..." He highlights the two speeds at which society advances, the vertiginous imbalance in which our world lives - opulence and poverty, culture and ignorance... and on the other hand he shows the isolation, incommunication, mass consumption, alienation and loss of personal identity that we suffer daily. He tries to capture these concepts conceptually and formally. The elements he uses are the result of the photographs he takes with his camera, video and other types of documentation. These are characters and icons that he transforms into symbols to convey his message in an ironic way. These elements coexist in the works of art of the past, which he uses as support and it is from the combination of both that his language emerges. Formally, he uses black and white to represent the past and color to represent the present.
He usually generates an interrelationship between characters of the cultural world, artists, curators, filmmakers, thinkers, religious, politicians, homeless, marginalized, displaced, in contrast to those who generate the star system, as well as works of art, sculptures ... He develops stereotypes ranging from uniformed soldiers with flower prints wielding ice cream, instead of guns, in order to demystify the image associated with aggressiveness.
He studied at the Llotja School and at the Massana School Visual Arts Center in Barcelona. Lluís Barba has exhibited his work in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Canada and Japan. His work is part of several public collections and museums MACBA Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona, Centro Wifredo Lam de Arte Contemporáneo de La Habana, Marugame Hirai Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo de Japón, MADC Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo de Costa Rica, MAVAO Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Museo Jacobo Borges MACC and MUJABO Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas. In 2007, Barba participates in 'The Garden of Earthly Delights', from the Travellers in Time series, based on Bosch's novel at Art Basel Miami, quoted in several media (CNN New York, The London Times, The Independent...) and makes a music video collaboration for Lil Wayne's 'Steady Mobbin'. Since 2009, he has been part of the Young Masters, organized by Corbett Projects, working on several exhibitions in London. In 2010, Barba received the Young Masters Art Prize with the triptych 'The Hay Wain', exhibited at The Courtauld Institute of Art.