| Press November 2010 |
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"Exercicis de Desaparicio III, 2010
CATALAN ARTIST JORDI ALCARAZ challenges our perceptions with paintings, drawings and sculptures that are both adamantly present and magically elusive. Fluent in the languages of Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel but speaking a uniquely lyrical dialect, Alcaraz addresses our aesthetic expectations only to frustrate and dismantle them. As he does so, he leads us through new phenomenological engagement with art and time, and their infinite possibilities.
Exercicis de Desapararicio III (2010) is a handsome painting of black ovals on a matte grey ground. Its large scale, the inky darkness of its resolute discs, and the expressive verve with which they are limned, are all distantly related to Robert Motherwell's Elegy to the Spanish Republic series. Yet there are significant differences. The ground is cardboard, not canvas, and Alcaraz does as much with charcoal on its malleable surface as he does with paint. Even more unusual is what the younger artist does with the "glass" that hovers over the painting. Actually, it is Plexiglas, not glass per se. And Alcaraz pierces it several times with circular holes that resemble nothing so much as bullet holes. Yet these poetic "bullets" do not rupture the cardboard behind them. Instead, they cast shimmering reflections that function as clear
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counterpoints to the rounded, dark drops dancing over the rest of the composition. In his Libre d' Astronomia (2010), the artist has pierced 11 holes through the Plexiglas and into the blank pages of an old book.
Highlights sparkle around the holes in the Plexiglas. Shadowed slivers of text fill the circles pierced in the book. Together they create a dynamic visual dialogue that parallels the way ideas about space and time ricochet among particle physicists debating String Theory.
Alcaraz's drawings similarly challenge the history of that medium and what we expect of it. Exercicis de Desaparicio II (2010) begins with four of the artist's black planets, orbiting in the upper left corner. To the right is a small hole, illuminating the grey ground like a tiny sun. Connecting them are what appear to be pale lines, but are in fact arcing erasures that cut through a charcoal cloud. In other works, he draws with lengths of wire, tenuously suspended behind the Plexiglas. Or he pours pigment through the holes in the Plexiglas, so that the blackness pools in thick puddles to create the "drawn" forms. Alcaraz's phenomenological play with materials and perceptions recalls the work of his older compatriot Antoni Tapies (certainly an eminence grise in much of this oeuvre), even as he elegantly transcends it.
The most melancholy piece - and perhaps the most Spanish - is El Temps (2010). A distressed wooden saint stands alone in a Plexiglas box. His head is bowed, his eyes cast downward. He reaches forward with one graceful hand to pull back one corner of the box, creating a curtain-like fold, and opening the corner to allow the air of time to enter. The French term l'air du temps has become identified with a perfume name, but the phrase originally meant something like zeitgeist. Allowing air to move in and through the holes he pierces in his astonishing artworks, Alcaraz enchants the spirit of our times. With the base materials of ink, cardboard, wood and Plexiglas, he juxtaposes consciousness with physical phenomena - and conjures experiential alchemy.
Ends December 24, 2010
-Betty Ann Brown |
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| Gallery Profile
Founded in 1979, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts has presented major exhibitions of important Modern and Contemporary European and American artists. Since its inaugural exhibition featuring the works of Arshile Gorky and Hans Burkhardt, the gallery has continued to present museum-quality exhibitions placing contemporary paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings in historical context.
Established at its current La Brea Avenue location in 1981, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts has featured exhibitions by gallery artists Jordi Alcaraz, Hans Burkhardt, Patrick Graham, Reuben Nakian, Ruth Weisberg, Jerome Witkin, and Francisco Zuniga. In addition, the gallery has presented a wide range of solo exhibitions of major international artists including Kathe Kollwitz, Antoni Tapies, Arshile Gorky, Georges Rouault, Hundertwasser, George Herms, Max Weber, Alexander Calder and other significant 20th century artists.
Noteworthy thematic exhibitions presented by the gallery have included major surveys of German Expressionism, California Modern Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Art, as well as numerous group exhibitions.
The gallery is particularly noteworthy for its emphasis on education through its exhibitions, numerous lectures and panel discussions. Through those endeavors, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts is an important resource for established and beginning collectors, art historians, and museums internationally.
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Available Works Include:
Pierre Alechinsky
Karel Appel
John Baldessari
Hannelore Baron
Pierre Bonnard
Jonathan Borofsky
Alexander Calder
Marc Chagall
Willem De Kooning
Jim Dine
Max Ernst
Fantin-Latour
Oskar Fischinger
Helen Frankenthaler
Alberto Giacometti |
Joe Goode
Arshile Gorky
Francisco Goya
David Hockney
Edward Hopper
Hundertwasser
Kathe Kollwitz
Roy Lichtenstein
Man Ray
Roberto Matta
Peter Milton
Joan Miro
Henry Moore
Emil Nolde
Pablo Picasso |
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Robert Rauschenberg
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Larry Rivers
Auguste Rodin
Georges Rouault
Ed Ruscha
Rufino Tamayo
Antoni Tapies
Mark Tobey
Andy Warhol
Max Weber
Tom Wesselmann
Jerome Witkin
Francisco Zuniga |
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