Javier Riaño
06 Feb - 10 May 2015
JAVIER RIAÑO
6 February - 10 May 2015
Sala Rekalde presents an exhibition by painter Javier Riaño (Bilbao, 1959) comprising almost sixty works produced over the last five years. This important selection reflects the main constant in his output with its ongoing focus on architecture, in both interior and exterior spaces, marked by their sobriety and bereft of any human presence.
In his already lengthy career Javier Riaño has evolved from postulates close to hyperrealism and to pop art in his initial productions to a final body of work whose keynotes are landscape and architectures. In the meantime, always maintaining his figurative focus in works with a lighter take than in the previous stage, an abandonment of colour occurs in favour of a range of browns that, in grayscale mode, help him in the pictorial study of his new objective, which is light.
This radical turn opens a new phase, which is that shown in this exhibition, where Riaño reinforces his strategy with the containment of colour and the study of light, and elaborates on themes linked with architectural spaces.
They are large format works, experimenting in some cases with circular shapes, and maximizing in others the horizontality of the format to show the size of the surfaces, built as if they absolutely surrounded us, with no possible way out. He works on short series with the subjects that he chooses, versions around an issue/image in which he presents slight variants: interiors with swimming pools, interiors with stairs, interiors of museums, inner courtyards of buildings, corridors, tunnels, etc...
These places do not really exist, in the way Riaño shows them to us. They have been simplified, purified in some way, reduced to the basic elements of light and its limits, framed by opaque volumes. They are spaces without specific attributes, lacking in any human presence, and dominated by the geometrical purity of the forms. These places of Riaño’s seem closed, complete, and their end lies in themselves.
In his latest series, Riaño suddenly changes chromatic register and crafts a cycle of totally monochromatic paintings. He leaves behind the ochres and greys which are now replaced by vibrant yellows, intense reds, dazzling turquoises..., as if the painter had regained his most pop art profile.
THE ARTIST
Javier Riaño began his artistic career when he had scarcely come of age. Those first works could be seen in individual shows such as those held at the Galería Arteta (Bilbao, 1980), the Casa de Cultura in Basauri (1983 y 1985), the Caja de Ahorros Municipal in Bilbao (1983), Windsor Kulturgintza (Bilbao, 1987) and the Galería Ederti (Bilbao, 1993).
As the years went by, Riaño was recognized as an important member of a generation of artists that championed figurative painting in contemporary art and who, without constituting themselves as a movement, certainly shared a certain common topos which fired their creative activity.He later inaugurated a new stage with the works shown in the Galería Juan Manuel Lumbreras (Bilbao, 2003) and in the Galería Xanon (Madrid, 2005 and 2006).
His latest production was on show in Madrid in 2007 and 2012 in the Alexandra Irigoyen and Ansorena galleries, respectively, in 2010 in the Gabarron Foundation-Carriage House Center for the Arts in New York (2010), and in the Centro Fox in Mexico (2011).
Javier Riaño was also director of the BilbaoArte Foundation between 1996 and 2010. In addition, he has collaborated and acted as an artistic advisor to a number of institutions and publications, and has curated several exhibitions, including those organized around the work of Manolo Valdés (BilbaoArte, 1996) and Robert and Sonia Delaunay (Fundación Bancaja, 2003).
6 February - 10 May 2015
Sala Rekalde presents an exhibition by painter Javier Riaño (Bilbao, 1959) comprising almost sixty works produced over the last five years. This important selection reflects the main constant in his output with its ongoing focus on architecture, in both interior and exterior spaces, marked by their sobriety and bereft of any human presence.
In his already lengthy career Javier Riaño has evolved from postulates close to hyperrealism and to pop art in his initial productions to a final body of work whose keynotes are landscape and architectures. In the meantime, always maintaining his figurative focus in works with a lighter take than in the previous stage, an abandonment of colour occurs in favour of a range of browns that, in grayscale mode, help him in the pictorial study of his new objective, which is light.
This radical turn opens a new phase, which is that shown in this exhibition, where Riaño reinforces his strategy with the containment of colour and the study of light, and elaborates on themes linked with architectural spaces.
They are large format works, experimenting in some cases with circular shapes, and maximizing in others the horizontality of the format to show the size of the surfaces, built as if they absolutely surrounded us, with no possible way out. He works on short series with the subjects that he chooses, versions around an issue/image in which he presents slight variants: interiors with swimming pools, interiors with stairs, interiors of museums, inner courtyards of buildings, corridors, tunnels, etc...
These places do not really exist, in the way Riaño shows them to us. They have been simplified, purified in some way, reduced to the basic elements of light and its limits, framed by opaque volumes. They are spaces without specific attributes, lacking in any human presence, and dominated by the geometrical purity of the forms. These places of Riaño’s seem closed, complete, and their end lies in themselves.
In his latest series, Riaño suddenly changes chromatic register and crafts a cycle of totally monochromatic paintings. He leaves behind the ochres and greys which are now replaced by vibrant yellows, intense reds, dazzling turquoises..., as if the painter had regained his most pop art profile.
THE ARTIST
Javier Riaño began his artistic career when he had scarcely come of age. Those first works could be seen in individual shows such as those held at the Galería Arteta (Bilbao, 1980), the Casa de Cultura in Basauri (1983 y 1985), the Caja de Ahorros Municipal in Bilbao (1983), Windsor Kulturgintza (Bilbao, 1987) and the Galería Ederti (Bilbao, 1993).
As the years went by, Riaño was recognized as an important member of a generation of artists that championed figurative painting in contemporary art and who, without constituting themselves as a movement, certainly shared a certain common topos which fired their creative activity.He later inaugurated a new stage with the works shown in the Galería Juan Manuel Lumbreras (Bilbao, 2003) and in the Galería Xanon (Madrid, 2005 and 2006).
His latest production was on show in Madrid in 2007 and 2012 in the Alexandra Irigoyen and Ansorena galleries, respectively, in 2010 in the Gabarron Foundation-Carriage House Center for the Arts in New York (2010), and in the Centro Fox in Mexico (2011).
Javier Riaño was also director of the BilbaoArte Foundation between 1996 and 2010. In addition, he has collaborated and acted as an artistic advisor to a number of institutions and publications, and has curated several exhibitions, including those organized around the work of Manolo Valdés (BilbaoArte, 1996) and Robert and Sonia Delaunay (Fundación Bancaja, 2003).