PAINTING WITHOUT LITERATURE
Javier Bermúdez
Jose Hevilla
Fran Conde
Cachito Vallés
From 15 Dec to 17 Feb 2019
CATALOGUE
Discussing painting in this contemporary age of utter banality, exacerbated by the exponential proliferation of images consumed by a hyper-consumer society which makes no attempt to critically examine them, is an exercise in resistance. In this project, the aim of that exercise is not to bring back the exaltation of painting as an object owned by the elite or present it as an easily consumable commodity in a decorative context, but rather to establish a theoretical framework for rethinking the idea of painting as the possibility of thought.
Through the work of José García Vallés, Fran Conde and José María Hevilla, the “picture-object” will run the gamut from seemingly 19th-century positions to others where painting literally steps outside itself. The artists’ proposals strive to heighten the tension between the image’s objective nature, which emphasises the textual drive of the pictorial surface, and its subjective side, in the sense that works negate the artist’s own subjectivity and gesture, and the impossibility of the picture as representation. The theme of the picture thus resides in understanding painting as a problem, considering its own internal structure and the question of its disappearance, in order to avoid the lure of historicist rhetoric or returning to the past.
The exhibition catalogue features an essay by exhibition curator Javier Bermúdez.
Openning: December 14th, 8pm
Guided tour: February 2nd, 1pm
Educational workshop: February 2nd, 11.30am to 1pm
GAlLERY
TAGS
artists
Sevilla, 1986
Graduated from the University of Seville with a BFA and an MA in Art: Idea and Production. He has produced shows at galleries like Luis Adelantado and JMGalería, among others, and has exhibited his work at various art centres and museums across Andalusia.
He has participated in international art fairs such as Zona MACO and was selected as the recipient of several production and exhibition grants. His work is based on an experimental approach to art through new creative media and a language that relies on patterns, duality and geometry.
Málaga, 1990
Hevilla Villalobos studied Fine Art and took the master’s course on Interdisciplinary Artistic Production (University of Málaga). The pictorial image and its processes of technification are his main interest and field of research.
He has won several grants, including the 12th Grant for Young Artists from Fundación Antonio Gala, Córdoba, the 3rd ARP Fine Art Faculty of Málaga Grant; a grant from C.I.E.C. (Centro Internacional de Estampa Contemporánea) in A Coruña; and the Alfara Gráfica residency grant in Salamanca. He has also garnered several awards, most notably the DESENCAJA Visual Arts Prize (Málaga) and the CICUS National Visual Arts Prize (Seville). His work has appeared in collective exhibitions such as FUTURO-FICCIÓN: TO BE CONTINUED… at Columna JM, and the Caja de Extremadura International Visual Arts Award showcase at Centro Cultural Las Claras, Plasencia, and can be found in the collections of Fundación Antonio Gala, University of Málaga, University of Seville and Fundación Caja Rural de Jaén, among others.
Málaga, 1984
Bermúdez Pérez has a BFA (University of Málaga) and an MA in Research in Art and Creation (Complutense University of Madrid). He is currently writing his doctoral thesis on liminal relationships between contemporary artistic and curatorial practices (University of Granada).
He has worked as a content coordinator for the digital contemporary art journal La Raya Verde, as a regular contributor to the Andalusian art platform “presente-continuo” and at JM Galería. He has curated projects such as Modular Pavilion (Columna JM), Luz Silenciosa (Columna JM), Dentro del Leviatán (MUPAM Málaga) and Incendiar el velo: fetiches de objeto/imagen (JM Galería) and written exhibition and catalogue texts for the CAC Málaga (Santiago Ydáñez solo show), University of Jaén (Manuel Ángeles Ortiz National Painting Prize) and JM Galería. He currently teaches design theory at EADE (Málaga), writes art reviews for La Opinión de Málaga, and is editor of the “Diálogos” section of the university magazine Umatica.
Málaga, 1987
Conde graduated from the University of Málaga with a BFA. In Málaga, his end-of-studies project was selected for 8 Grados Sur (Rectorate, University of Málaga, 2015) and participated in the group exhibition Causa o Pretexto (Espacio Iniciarte, Málaga, 2014). In 2016 he did a residency at La Maison de l’Email in Morez, France. His predominantly pictorial oeuvre assumes that the ontology of the medium is only defined through praxis, which is therefore always an unavoidable symbolic cultural representation. In his investigations, he attempts to appropriate the linguistic characteristics of different narrative systems in order to discuss the themes around which his work revolves: the auratic physicality of the cultural/artistic artefact, and the ways in which the contemporary individual dwells in contexts. He currently lives in Nyon, Switzerland.
