Carmen Grau

CARMEN GRAU, (Valencia, 1950).
"The eyes of Montgó" 1989.
Mixed media and collage on board.
Signed, dated and titled in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 121 x 243 cm, 125 x 247 cm (frame).
Carmen Grau is an artist with a long career. Without her existence, the history of Valencian art would be lame. She is part of a generation of artists who reflect in the chromatic authenticity their link with the land where they come from. She began her artistic career in the studio of her father, the draftsman and illustrator José Grau. A tireless worker, she is capable of proposing diverse poetics both in the pictorial field and in her box-objects and sculptures, without forgetting the constant reference to drawing. She knows and dominates the materials to almost unknown limits, she always knows how to use them. She is meticulous in her treatment, a characteristic that she repeats over the years. It is the small elements that finally make up the work. Carmen Grau tells stories, recalls past times, perhaps parallel to her own history, or ironically poses situations or makes allegories. Diverse forms, materials with textures, with imbrications of fabrics, rough and superimposed, conceptual and minimalist at times. Matter, matter, and matter.
His work is the result of constant research and of a faculty inherent to his person: the ability to create, to make art and to offer it to the viewer. Grau, describes, shapes and reflects from the permanent restlessness a whole palpitating panorama that translates the warp of a universe close to the spectator from objects and procedures that find their sense in the daily simplicity.
He began his artistic career in the studio of his father, the Valencian artist and illustrator José Grau. Studies at the Escuela Superior de BBAA de San Carlos de Valencia (1970) - Degree in Fine Arts from the Faculty of Valencia (1981) - PhD in Fine Arts from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Fac. de BBAA) (1987) - Professor of Painting at the UPV of Valencia. Faculty of Fine Arts (2003).