Josep Maria Riera i Aragó

JOSEP MARIA RIERA I ARAGÓ (Barcelona, 1954).
Untitled.1981.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 78 x 57 cm; 106 x 86 cm (frame).

In this drawing, a helicopter propeller joins a base rooted in the ground and a geometric figure that synthesizes a character upside down. In this early work the author already shows his interest in the machinism associated with the relationship between flight and psychic transformation, which is reflected in the floating figure.

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. Of particular note are the solo exhibitions he has 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. Never repetitive, each of Riera i Aragó's "machines" evokes, without pathos or condescension, a clear and comprehensive vision of humanity. With a visual vocabulary limited to simple forms reminiscent of zeppelins, submarines or airplanes, Riera i Aragó develops a fertile iconography charged 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 should be understood as a global story, which is related to languages as disparate as astronomy, botany, mathematics or mysticism, and which offers the viewer the possibility of entering a particular universe of great lyricism, where reality and fiction are no longer opposing categories. Riera i Aragó is currently represented in the Museum of Contemporary Art 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.