Ignacio Uriarte
16 Nov 2013 - 18 Jan 2014
IGNACIO URIARTE
Hard Facts
16 November 2013 - 18 January 2014
NoguerasBlanchard is delighted to announce Ignacio Uriarte's third exhibition in the gallery. Highlighting the more painterly aspect of his work, large-scale black and white drawings explore the formal and conceptual concerns underlining his practice: the mechanical, repetitive actions and the spontaneous, instinctive gestures that reveal his particular formal universe.
As noted by Joanna Kleinberg in Uriarte's catalogue for his recent exhibition Line of work at The Drawing Center, 'the visual effects in his works are complex, but the language is plain: lines, colours and clean surfaces'. This visual complexity can be appreciated in works such as Strong Upper and Downer (2013) where Uriarte uses a typewriter to depict a large black and red cross shape on 24 separate sheets of paper. Upon closer inspection, one sees that the basic element of the drawing is a percentage sign typed in such a way that the red symbols appear to move downwards while the black ones seem to ascend, simulating the rise and fall of stock market curves.
In The Kingdom (2013), a key work in the exhibition, a subtler visual game takes place that recalls and earlier work where the grid of an Excel sheet reveals geometric shapes and playful compositions (Immer größer und weniger, immer kleiner und mehr, 2006, video, 86'). In this case, the cells seem to project outwards towards the viewer as they decrease in size progressively from the upper right to lower left corners in a movement of expansion and contraction.
Accurate and precise strokes that concentrate the space into 9 drawings, alluding to concepts such as freedom and confinement. The title refers to the kingdom as stage of society as well as a mental state, revealing a particular feature in Uriarte's work, where ideas inspired in the sedentary routine of the office environment transcend the space with extraordinary ingenuity.
Other works in the exhibition show the same procedure but are differentiated through their material specificity. In Thicket - warm (2013) and Thicket - cold (2013) a mass of lines stretched out across the middle of the drawing, appear quite different when viewed on different tones of white paper. Another example of a similar approach would be Scriptures Blot 1-3 (2013). An exercise which is as random as it is restrained, the piece consists of three large drawings of black ink blots, or stains, in different densities. While the word stain recalls the accidental, in Scriptures Blot 1-3 the ink blots are however carefully aligned as if they were typed dots, hence the idea of accident is reduced to the small spills between the dots.
One of the most ubiquitous gestures found in Uriarte 's work is the act of doodling. In his newest body of works, Amorfos negros 1-6 (2013) the gesture of scribbling forms an ovular shape that varies slightly from one drawing to another. Uriarte's interest in the oval shape can be traced back to works such as Black Oval (video 72', 2005), where a succession of 100 copies distorting the original shape of a black oval printed on a sheet records the impossibility of a perfect photocopy. Amorfos negros 1-6 addresses the imprecise nature of repetition through the rhythmic fluctuations of the gesture, underlining, along with the rest of the pieces in the exhibition, the handmade and mechanical intensity inherent in Uriarte's practice.
Ignacio Uriarte's solo exhibitions include: Infinity, AMoA-Art House, Austin, USA (2013); Writing, Interisland Terminal, Honolulu, USA (2013); Binaries, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, USA (2013); Line of Work, The Drawing Center, New York (2013); Líneas Generales, etHALL, Barcelona (2012); Works, Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida, Spain (2012); Works, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; Preferiría no hacerlo, Casa del Lago, Mexico D.F (2011); The History of the typewriter Recited by Michael Winslow, NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona (2010); The invention of letters, PICA Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia (2010); I am making Art, Wilfredo Prieto & Ignacio Uriarte, Taka Ishii Gallery, Kyoto and Tokyo (2009); Tan sencillo como una línea o un círculo, Laboratorio 987, MUSAC, León (2008). Recent group exhibitions include: Not Yet Titled. New and Forever at Museum Ludwig, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2013); Trait Papier II Ein Essay zur Zeichnung der Gegenwart, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liesthal, Switzerland (2013); (Im)material Labour, Art Exchange, University of Essex, United Kingdom (2013); The Miseducation of Anja Major, Transmediale, Berlin (2013); Expanded Drawing, Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2012); Not by default – Post Internet Art aus Berlin, DAM, Berlin, Germany (2012); Media-Scape Biennale, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia (2012); Video/Choreo, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA (2012); In the Shadow of the Sun, Kunstverein at L40 / Babylon, Berlin (2012). He was awarded with Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Art Grant, Santander (2008), MUSAC, León (2006) and CAM Creación Artística (2007).
Ignacio Uriarte (Krefeld 1972) lives and works in Berlín.
Hard Facts
16 November 2013 - 18 January 2014
NoguerasBlanchard is delighted to announce Ignacio Uriarte's third exhibition in the gallery. Highlighting the more painterly aspect of his work, large-scale black and white drawings explore the formal and conceptual concerns underlining his practice: the mechanical, repetitive actions and the spontaneous, instinctive gestures that reveal his particular formal universe.
As noted by Joanna Kleinberg in Uriarte's catalogue for his recent exhibition Line of work at The Drawing Center, 'the visual effects in his works are complex, but the language is plain: lines, colours and clean surfaces'. This visual complexity can be appreciated in works such as Strong Upper and Downer (2013) where Uriarte uses a typewriter to depict a large black and red cross shape on 24 separate sheets of paper. Upon closer inspection, one sees that the basic element of the drawing is a percentage sign typed in such a way that the red symbols appear to move downwards while the black ones seem to ascend, simulating the rise and fall of stock market curves.
In The Kingdom (2013), a key work in the exhibition, a subtler visual game takes place that recalls and earlier work where the grid of an Excel sheet reveals geometric shapes and playful compositions (Immer größer und weniger, immer kleiner und mehr, 2006, video, 86'). In this case, the cells seem to project outwards towards the viewer as they decrease in size progressively from the upper right to lower left corners in a movement of expansion and contraction.
Accurate and precise strokes that concentrate the space into 9 drawings, alluding to concepts such as freedom and confinement. The title refers to the kingdom as stage of society as well as a mental state, revealing a particular feature in Uriarte's work, where ideas inspired in the sedentary routine of the office environment transcend the space with extraordinary ingenuity.
Other works in the exhibition show the same procedure but are differentiated through their material specificity. In Thicket - warm (2013) and Thicket - cold (2013) a mass of lines stretched out across the middle of the drawing, appear quite different when viewed on different tones of white paper. Another example of a similar approach would be Scriptures Blot 1-3 (2013). An exercise which is as random as it is restrained, the piece consists of three large drawings of black ink blots, or stains, in different densities. While the word stain recalls the accidental, in Scriptures Blot 1-3 the ink blots are however carefully aligned as if they were typed dots, hence the idea of accident is reduced to the small spills between the dots.
One of the most ubiquitous gestures found in Uriarte 's work is the act of doodling. In his newest body of works, Amorfos negros 1-6 (2013) the gesture of scribbling forms an ovular shape that varies slightly from one drawing to another. Uriarte's interest in the oval shape can be traced back to works such as Black Oval (video 72', 2005), where a succession of 100 copies distorting the original shape of a black oval printed on a sheet records the impossibility of a perfect photocopy. Amorfos negros 1-6 addresses the imprecise nature of repetition through the rhythmic fluctuations of the gesture, underlining, along with the rest of the pieces in the exhibition, the handmade and mechanical intensity inherent in Uriarte's practice.
Ignacio Uriarte's solo exhibitions include: Infinity, AMoA-Art House, Austin, USA (2013); Writing, Interisland Terminal, Honolulu, USA (2013); Binaries, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, USA (2013); Line of Work, The Drawing Center, New York (2013); Líneas Generales, etHALL, Barcelona (2012); Works, Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida, Spain (2012); Works, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao; Preferiría no hacerlo, Casa del Lago, Mexico D.F (2011); The History of the typewriter Recited by Michael Winslow, NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona (2010); The invention of letters, PICA Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia (2010); I am making Art, Wilfredo Prieto & Ignacio Uriarte, Taka Ishii Gallery, Kyoto and Tokyo (2009); Tan sencillo como una línea o un círculo, Laboratorio 987, MUSAC, León (2008). Recent group exhibitions include: Not Yet Titled. New and Forever at Museum Ludwig, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany (2013); Trait Papier II Ein Essay zur Zeichnung der Gegenwart, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liesthal, Switzerland (2013); (Im)material Labour, Art Exchange, University of Essex, United Kingdom (2013); The Miseducation of Anja Major, Transmediale, Berlin (2013); Expanded Drawing, Casal Solleric, Palma de Mallorca, Spain (2012); Not by default – Post Internet Art aus Berlin, DAM, Berlin, Germany (2012); Media-Scape Biennale, HDLU, Zagreb, Croatia (2012); Video/Choreo, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA (2012); In the Shadow of the Sun, Kunstverein at L40 / Babylon, Berlin (2012). He was awarded with Fundación Marcelino Botín Visual Art Grant, Santander (2008), MUSAC, León (2006) and CAM Creación Artística (2007).
Ignacio Uriarte (Krefeld 1972) lives and works in Berlín.