Gonzalo Puch
08 May - 20 Jun 2009
GONZALO PUCH
“Introduction to Meteorology”
Galería Helga de Alvear
8th May 2009 – 20th June 2009
Opening hours: 11 am – 2 pm & 4:30 – 8:30 pm
Opening: Friday 8th May 2009 at 8 pm
Though this is Gonzalo Puch’s first show at Galería Helga de Alvear, he is already widely recognised as having one of the most original and creative bodies of work in photography in Spain with his unmistakably unique language.
The world portrayed by Gonzalo Puch is composed of settings he initially stages in his studio. Conceptually underpinned by the frozen instant and dazzling clarity, they are authentic still lifes built in an everyday, almost domestic, environment. It is as if the photograph would help him to re-construct the world or, at the very least, his own world. They are hybrid creations connecting with stage design and sculpture which the artist creates from his everyday (the classroom where he teaches, the workshop and the studio).
The compositions become richer and more complex as they bring on board new elements and themes. Among the most recurrent is the duality between Knowledge and Nature. The former is symbolised in theorems, formulas and diagrams drawn on blackboards, crucibles, flasks and stills while the latter is made present in plant and flowers. Likewise, though the human presence was negligible in his early images it has become more frequent.
Underlying these compositions one can discern a measured and meticulous order that opposes an apparent chaos, in the same way that there seems to be a balance between the dualities posited by the artist: interior images where the light clearly comes from outside, contrasts of apparently mutually opposed objects, or solitary scenes where the action of man has left its mark. When his work steps out of the studio and Nature takes on a greater role, Puch nevertheless shows how human intervention has impacted and degraded the landscape.
After his beginnings in painting, Puch soon expanded his practice into sculpture, installation and, finally, photography. To a certain degree, for this show at Galería Helga de Alvear, Gonzalo Puch is making a return to those origins by stepping beyond the boundaries or frame of the photo and taking over the three-dimensional space of the exhibition room.
On this occasion Puch presents a construction reminiscent of compositions that have appeared in his photographic work, which is evident in the gallery’s second room where he is presenting photographs which have been taken within the construction. It might well be a science laboratory or a research centre for some amateur meteorologist populated with elements recurrent in his work: apparatuses to measure who knows what, diagrams of isobars of the walls, bubbling flasks and plants that grow from inside towards the outside of the building.
And again he fuses everything with his customary humour and poetry, with order and chaos, accumulation and chance, the everyday and the exceptional.
“Introduction to Meteorology”
Galería Helga de Alvear
8th May 2009 – 20th June 2009
Opening hours: 11 am – 2 pm & 4:30 – 8:30 pm
Opening: Friday 8th May 2009 at 8 pm
Though this is Gonzalo Puch’s first show at Galería Helga de Alvear, he is already widely recognised as having one of the most original and creative bodies of work in photography in Spain with his unmistakably unique language.
The world portrayed by Gonzalo Puch is composed of settings he initially stages in his studio. Conceptually underpinned by the frozen instant and dazzling clarity, they are authentic still lifes built in an everyday, almost domestic, environment. It is as if the photograph would help him to re-construct the world or, at the very least, his own world. They are hybrid creations connecting with stage design and sculpture which the artist creates from his everyday (the classroom where he teaches, the workshop and the studio).
The compositions become richer and more complex as they bring on board new elements and themes. Among the most recurrent is the duality between Knowledge and Nature. The former is symbolised in theorems, formulas and diagrams drawn on blackboards, crucibles, flasks and stills while the latter is made present in plant and flowers. Likewise, though the human presence was negligible in his early images it has become more frequent.
Underlying these compositions one can discern a measured and meticulous order that opposes an apparent chaos, in the same way that there seems to be a balance between the dualities posited by the artist: interior images where the light clearly comes from outside, contrasts of apparently mutually opposed objects, or solitary scenes where the action of man has left its mark. When his work steps out of the studio and Nature takes on a greater role, Puch nevertheless shows how human intervention has impacted and degraded the landscape.
After his beginnings in painting, Puch soon expanded his practice into sculpture, installation and, finally, photography. To a certain degree, for this show at Galería Helga de Alvear, Gonzalo Puch is making a return to those origins by stepping beyond the boundaries or frame of the photo and taking over the three-dimensional space of the exhibition room.
On this occasion Puch presents a construction reminiscent of compositions that have appeared in his photographic work, which is evident in the gallery’s second room where he is presenting photographs which have been taken within the construction. It might well be a science laboratory or a research centre for some amateur meteorologist populated with elements recurrent in his work: apparatuses to measure who knows what, diagrams of isobars of the walls, bubbling flasks and plants that grow from inside towards the outside of the building.
And again he fuses everything with his customary humour and poetry, with order and chaos, accumulation and chance, the everyday and the exceptional.