Josep Maria Riera i Aragó

JOSEP MARIA RIERA I ARAGÓ (Barcelona, 1954).
Untitled. 1999
Mixed media and collage on thick paper.
Signed and dated.
Measurements: 48 x 68,5 cm; 65,5 x 86 cm (frame).

This work is fully inscribed in the iconographic universe of Riera i Aragó, where the technical object -reduced to its minimum expression- becomes a poetic sign. If in other pieces the airplane or the submarine appear recognizable, here the artifact is presented almost decomposed in fragments and schemes, as if witnessing a process of extreme abstraction. The central horizontal structure, crossed by Punctures and lines that evoke diagrams or constellations, suggests a suspended mechanism, an orientation or navigation device.

As usual with the artist, the work is situated in a hybrid territory between painting, relief and object. The material is not mere support, but memory: wear, time and transformation. Riera i Aragó synthesizes the artifact until it becomes a metaphor for displacement and orientation, exploring the tension between weight and suspension, between engineering and reverie.

Riera i Aragó is one of the contemporary Catalan artists with the greatest institutional presence. His work is part of prominent public collections such as the MNAC and MACBA (Barcelona), the IVAM (Valencia), the Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Ibiza, the Fundació Vila Casas and the Col-lecció "la Caixa", among other public and private collections in Spain and Europe.