Raúl Domínguez
25 Nov 2014 - 11 Jan 2015
RAÚL DOMÍNGUEZ
25 November 2014 - 11 January 2015
Sala Rekalde presents an exhibition by the artist Raúl Domínguez (Barakaldo, 1984) featuring a selection of works produced between 2013 and 2014.
In his sketches, Raúl uses many different technical resources and registers to construct images based on an accumulation of lines, blots and smudges, establishing a link between the marks and shapes of the landscape and those of the act of drawing. Going sometimes to the very edge of figurative art, his images end up having a texture that brings distant and nearby objects into the same plane. The works are shown directly on the wall, often unframed, to provide access to the material reality of the process of drawing.
Guided by an idea or a state of mind, the artist commences the process on a journey whose final result does not always coincide with the initial notion. In the exploration of the surrounding space and in the course of that mental trip, the first small format drawings arise, as sketches that record insignificant details, minimal fragments of landscapes, of clearings... which he files, as he does the photographs he makes of the same spaces, to eventually compose a new larger format drawing which translates and synthesizes all the experience of the preliminary drawing actions.
There is an Eastern flavour to these drawings by Raúl Domínguez. He does declare himself close to the conception of drawing in classical Chinese painting, in that he entrusts to the oneness of the stroke the resolution of the conflict between drawing and colour, chiaroscuro and volume. But exploration of the setting with the host of elements therein, and the experience of the excursion as its central guiding axis, also somehow connects him with the Japanese haiku tradition.
In the words of José Díaz Cuyás, “Raúl’s drawings tell of his hikes around abandoned lots, service areas, traffic waste sites, where nature and matter can be celebrated in their cosy proximity with garbage. Their drafts are simple orientation plans, maps, although not in the modern sense where the traveller’s action has been erased, but rather as in those maps of antiquity where a place was only conceivable as an itinerary: from here to there, “concrete jungle”, “rainfall”, “vomit”, “motorway”. Each drawing is an invitation to follow its course, and the bodily action of crossing the terrain organizes the succession and juxtaposition of places upon the plane.”
THE ARTIST
Raúl Domínguez (Barakaldo, 1984) graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). Although his artistic practice is centred on drawing, as an illustrator specialized in nature and the environment he has collaborated on a good number of scientific publications, as well as on environmental and artistic educational projects where he is engaged either in the running of courses and workshops, such as Dibujo Radikal with Rosa Parma in Puerta Espacio in Bilbao (2014), or illustrating information boards.
He has been given different awards, including the Regional Council of Bizkaia Visual Arts Grant (2014) and the Basque Government’s Artistic Creation Grant (2012).
Among his latest collective shows are Re-Ilustrazioa with Ángela Palacios at the Fundación Cristina Enea, Donostia-San Sebastián, and First Thought Best, at Artium, Vitoria-Gazteiz, within the Eremuak programme, both held in 2014; whilst that same year he made his first individual intervention at the Carreras Mugica gallery in Bilbao.
In his capacity as an illustrator, he published the children’s book El día de la rana roja (Ed. a fortiori, Bilbao, 2005) and, jointly with Elena Aizkoa, created the editorial project Lalavandera (2013), where he edited a book of drawings. Additionally, with his book Pretty woman he collaborated on the editorial project “pretty woman” (Ed. Consonni, Bilbao, 2014), set in motion by artist Pablo Marte.
25 November 2014 - 11 January 2015
Sala Rekalde presents an exhibition by the artist Raúl Domínguez (Barakaldo, 1984) featuring a selection of works produced between 2013 and 2014.
In his sketches, Raúl uses many different technical resources and registers to construct images based on an accumulation of lines, blots and smudges, establishing a link between the marks and shapes of the landscape and those of the act of drawing. Going sometimes to the very edge of figurative art, his images end up having a texture that brings distant and nearby objects into the same plane. The works are shown directly on the wall, often unframed, to provide access to the material reality of the process of drawing.
Guided by an idea or a state of mind, the artist commences the process on a journey whose final result does not always coincide with the initial notion. In the exploration of the surrounding space and in the course of that mental trip, the first small format drawings arise, as sketches that record insignificant details, minimal fragments of landscapes, of clearings... which he files, as he does the photographs he makes of the same spaces, to eventually compose a new larger format drawing which translates and synthesizes all the experience of the preliminary drawing actions.
There is an Eastern flavour to these drawings by Raúl Domínguez. He does declare himself close to the conception of drawing in classical Chinese painting, in that he entrusts to the oneness of the stroke the resolution of the conflict between drawing and colour, chiaroscuro and volume. But exploration of the setting with the host of elements therein, and the experience of the excursion as its central guiding axis, also somehow connects him with the Japanese haiku tradition.
In the words of José Díaz Cuyás, “Raúl’s drawings tell of his hikes around abandoned lots, service areas, traffic waste sites, where nature and matter can be celebrated in their cosy proximity with garbage. Their drafts are simple orientation plans, maps, although not in the modern sense where the traveller’s action has been erased, but rather as in those maps of antiquity where a place was only conceivable as an itinerary: from here to there, “concrete jungle”, “rainfall”, “vomit”, “motorway”. Each drawing is an invitation to follow its course, and the bodily action of crossing the terrain organizes the succession and juxtaposition of places upon the plane.”
THE ARTIST
Raúl Domínguez (Barakaldo, 1984) graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU). Although his artistic practice is centred on drawing, as an illustrator specialized in nature and the environment he has collaborated on a good number of scientific publications, as well as on environmental and artistic educational projects where he is engaged either in the running of courses and workshops, such as Dibujo Radikal with Rosa Parma in Puerta Espacio in Bilbao (2014), or illustrating information boards.
He has been given different awards, including the Regional Council of Bizkaia Visual Arts Grant (2014) and the Basque Government’s Artistic Creation Grant (2012).
Among his latest collective shows are Re-Ilustrazioa with Ángela Palacios at the Fundación Cristina Enea, Donostia-San Sebastián, and First Thought Best, at Artium, Vitoria-Gazteiz, within the Eremuak programme, both held in 2014; whilst that same year he made his first individual intervention at the Carreras Mugica gallery in Bilbao.
In his capacity as an illustrator, he published the children’s book El día de la rana roja (Ed. a fortiori, Bilbao, 2005) and, jointly with Elena Aizkoa, created the editorial project Lalavandera (2013), where he edited a book of drawings. Additionally, with his book Pretty woman he collaborated on the editorial project “pretty woman” (Ed. Consonni, Bilbao, 2014), set in motion by artist Pablo Marte.