JAVIER AGUILERA - OTAKU RIDER 2010
Pressemeddelelse:
Spansk vildmand i Gallery Poulsen
Filmmanden Pedro Almodóvars barokke film rummer alt det, der falder uden for det normale. Vi ser stofmisbrugere, sindssyge, transvestitter, ludere, voldsmænd, tyrefægtere, osv. Persongalleriet hos hans landsmand Javier Aguilera tilhører samme familie. Det er de udstødte. De vilde, de sørgmodige, de forladte, de forslåede. Alle dem, der bevæger sig et godt stykke fra det, vi kalder normalitet og pænhed.
Nu præsenterer Gallery Poulsen en soloudstilling med Javier Aguileras vilde, hyperrealistiske skulpturer samt hans tegninger og malerier.
>>Første gang, jeg mødte en af Javier Aguileras figurer, var på en udstilling i Kurfürstendamm i 2008. Figuren var ”Leftie”. Han er en lille gadedreng, der sniffer lim, mens han kigger på dig med bedende øjne. Bang, sagde det! Drengen ramte mig lige i maven, og derfor hentede jeg ham hurtigt hjem til mit galleri i København. I 2009 lykkedes det mig at skaffe en række af hans skulpturer til København, men der skulle gå endnu et år, før han havde fundet tid til denne hans første soloudstilling i Danmark,<< siger Morten Poulsen.
Den nye udstilling tæller 14 nye skulpturer samt 4 tegninger og 3 malerier. Der udgives et katalog i forbindelse med udstillingen.
Javier Aguilera er født i 1969, altså under general Francos støvlehæls-brutalitet. Han voksede op i Madrid og så demokratiet tage form efter Francos død i 1975, og han fik dermed den nyvundne spanske frihed og vitalitet skudt direkte ind i sin drengekrop. Og netop frihed kendetegner hans arbejde. Han kigger til øst og vest og bruger alt det, han synes om. Mod vest har han fundet kunstnere som amerikanerne Duane Hanson og John de Andrea, hvis skulpturer i 1960'erne genintroducerede den stærkt realistiske menneskefigur. Mod øst har han kigget japanske kunstnere over skuldrene, og navnlig den sprudlende mangatradition er tydelig, især i hans helt nye arbejde. Han suger tillige fra spansk historie - med Francisco Goyas grufulde billeder af krig og henrettelser som en oplagt reference.
Men allervigtigst orienterer Javier Aguilera sig i sin nutid; han har øjnene vidt åbne og registrerer nysgerrigt alle de mennesker, der bevæger sig rundt omkring ham.
>>Javier Aguileras figurer har alle en eller anden brist. Nogle af dem har fået tæsk, andre har været på druk. Flere har sandsynligvis været i kløerne på politiet. Engang imellem er de opgivende og deprimerede, andre gange provokerende aggressive. På den måde viser de det, der gemmer sig under samfundets polerede overflade. Og det er netop alt det under overfladen, Gallery Poulsen vil hive frem i lyset,<< fastslår Morten Poulsen.
Javier Aguilera er tilstede før og under ferniseringen og står til rådighed for interviews.
Pressebilleder i høj opløsning finder du i bunden af siden.
Press release in English
Javier Aguilera - Otaku Rider
Film director and storyteller Pedro Almodóvar's baroque films feature everything that is outside what is considered normal. We see drug addicts, mentally illness, transvestites, prostitutes, thugs, bull fighters, etc. Javier Aguilera’s gallery of characters belong to the same family. They are outcasts. Wild, sad, abandoned, and battered. People who inhabit the peripheries of what we call normality and respectability.
Now gallery Poulsen presents a soloexibition with Javier Agulilera's crazy, hyperrealistic sculptures and his drawings and paintings.
>>The first time I came face to face with one of Javier Aguilera’s figures, was at a fair in Kurfürstendamm in 2008. The figure was ”leftie”. “Leftie” is a little street boy, sniffing glue as he looks up at you with pleading eyes. Bang...! The boy hit me right in the gut, and before I knew it, he was back in my gallery in Copenhagen. In 2009, I was lucky enough to bring a number of his sculptures to Copenhagen. However, another year passed before he had found time for this – his first solo exhibition in Denmark,<< says Morten Poulsen.
This new exibition presents 14 new sculptures, 4 drawings and 3 paintings. A catalogue has been made for the exibition.
Javier Aguilera was born in 1969, under the brutal boot heels of general Franco’s rule. He grew up in Madrid, watching democracy take shape after Francos death in 1975 and thus received undiluted shots of newly won Spanish freedom and vitality directly into his young veins. And freedom is precisely what his work reflects. Looking east and west, he uses everything that catches his fancy.
In the west, he has found artists such as Americans Duane Hanson and John de Andrea, whose sculptures in the 1960s reintroduced the powerfully realistic human figure. In the east, he has watched over the shoulders of Japanese artists, and the bubbling manga comic tradition is very clear, especially in his most recent work. He also draws inspiration from Spanish history – with Francisco Goya’s horrifying pictures of war and executions as an obvious reference.
But Javier Aguilera’s most important reference is the present; his eyes are wide with curiosity, taking in all the people moving around him.
>>Javier Aguilera’s figures all have a weird flaw of some kind. Some of them have been beaten, others have been drinking. Many of them have probably been on the wrong side of the law. Some are despairing and depressed, others are provocatively aggressive. And that’s how they reveal what’s concealed under the polished surface of society. And all that’s concealed is exactly what Gallery Poulsen wants to put firmly in the spotlight,<< states Morten Poulsen.
Javier Aguilera is present under and after the opening and is available for interviews.
Press images can be found further down
Information
Javier Aguilera - Otaku Rider - October 1 to October 23 - Vernissage Fridag October 1st, 5 pm - 8
Gallery Poulsen Contemporary Fine Arts
Flæsketorvet 24, Den hvide Kødby
1711 København V.
Tlf.+45 4015 5588
www.gallerypoulsen.com
[email protected]
Opening hours: Wednesday thru Friday 13 -18, Saturday 12 - 16, or by appointment, tel +45 - 40 15 55 88 / +45 33 33 93 96
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