Angela de la Cruz
20 Jan - 05 Mar 2011
ANGELA DE LA CRUZ
Transfer
20 January – 5 March, 2011
Angela de la Cruz presents her first solo exhibition in Galería Helga de Alvear. The Galician-born artist (La Coruña, 1965) studied Philosophy at Santiago de Compostela University, and, at the end of the 1980's, she moved to London with the intention of devoting herself to art. There, she completed her training at the Slade College and at the prestigious Goldsmiths College. Currently, she continues to live in London. In 1996, she starts to break the paintings. Literally. The canvas, sometimes along with the frame, is wrinkled, deformed, folded, and, finally, broken. Beyond the Fontana-like cut or a mere pictorial resource, De la Cruz submits her paintings to a deliberately physical and willingly transforming process with the decisive aim of extending the limits of the canvas until bringing it close to sculpture. Her intention is not only to abandon the flat surface in favour of the three-dimensional object, but to reveal the passage of the work in this physical process. The result ranges from the sacred and the sublime to irony or tenderness. A key step in her goal to reach the sculptural, was the incorporation of objects, furniture, that have been generally found or recovered from the street. Thus, chairs extend their legs with crude and obvious protheses that make balance all but impossible, cabinets are wrinkled in order to try to fir way too small boxes, and shelves fold like an accordion that has hit the floor. On several occasions, there has been talk of the parallelism, or, rather, the reflection of her biography in relation to the actions her work is subjected to. On other occasions, De la Cruz has even stated that she sees the frame as "an extension" of her own body. Finally, certain works have a symbolic relationship to the artist, especially in the geometric forms and the sizes and proportions she uses. The work of Angela de la Cruz uses colour in a very particular manner, by choosing tones on the edge of ugliness, eerily touching on displeasure. Paint is applied in masses, as if she wanted to make the spectator doubt whether the result is due to an obssessive manual determination, or, on the other hand, it has been produced in an industrial and mechanised way. Eventually, the sticky surface end up bringing the canvas close to the texture and shine of plastic. Finally, we should point out the sarcastic sense of humour with which the artist contemplates her own work, and which becomes evident in titles such as "Hung", "Squashed", or "Deflated", with which it almost seems as if she was mocking her creations. Angela de la Cruz has had solo exhibitions at the Camden Arts Centre (2010), the Culturgest Centre in Lisbon (2006), and the MARCO Museum, Vigo (2004). Recently, she has been nominated for the 2010 Turner Prize, and she has been awarded the important Paul Hamlyn Award.
Transfer
20 January – 5 March, 2011
Angela de la Cruz presents her first solo exhibition in Galería Helga de Alvear. The Galician-born artist (La Coruña, 1965) studied Philosophy at Santiago de Compostela University, and, at the end of the 1980's, she moved to London with the intention of devoting herself to art. There, she completed her training at the Slade College and at the prestigious Goldsmiths College. Currently, she continues to live in London. In 1996, she starts to break the paintings. Literally. The canvas, sometimes along with the frame, is wrinkled, deformed, folded, and, finally, broken. Beyond the Fontana-like cut or a mere pictorial resource, De la Cruz submits her paintings to a deliberately physical and willingly transforming process with the decisive aim of extending the limits of the canvas until bringing it close to sculpture. Her intention is not only to abandon the flat surface in favour of the three-dimensional object, but to reveal the passage of the work in this physical process. The result ranges from the sacred and the sublime to irony or tenderness. A key step in her goal to reach the sculptural, was the incorporation of objects, furniture, that have been generally found or recovered from the street. Thus, chairs extend their legs with crude and obvious protheses that make balance all but impossible, cabinets are wrinkled in order to try to fir way too small boxes, and shelves fold like an accordion that has hit the floor. On several occasions, there has been talk of the parallelism, or, rather, the reflection of her biography in relation to the actions her work is subjected to. On other occasions, De la Cruz has even stated that she sees the frame as "an extension" of her own body. Finally, certain works have a symbolic relationship to the artist, especially in the geometric forms and the sizes and proportions she uses. The work of Angela de la Cruz uses colour in a very particular manner, by choosing tones on the edge of ugliness, eerily touching on displeasure. Paint is applied in masses, as if she wanted to make the spectator doubt whether the result is due to an obssessive manual determination, or, on the other hand, it has been produced in an industrial and mechanised way. Eventually, the sticky surface end up bringing the canvas close to the texture and shine of plastic. Finally, we should point out the sarcastic sense of humour with which the artist contemplates her own work, and which becomes evident in titles such as "Hung", "Squashed", or "Deflated", with which it almost seems as if she was mocking her creations. Angela de la Cruz has had solo exhibitions at the Camden Arts Centre (2010), the Culturgest Centre in Lisbon (2006), and the MARCO Museum, Vigo (2004). Recently, she has been nominated for the 2010 Turner Prize, and she has been awarded the important Paul Hamlyn Award.