Josep Maria Riera i Aragó

JOSEP MARIA RIERA I ARAGÓ (Barcelona, 1954).
"Avió".1988
Mixed media and collage with wood, iron and lead on canvas.
Signed in the lower right corner.
Work catalogued in "Riera i Aragó", Glòria Picazo, Edicions Polígrafa.
Measurements: 122,5 x 228 cm.

This work is part of Riera i Aragó's characteristic iconography: the flying machine as a poetic metaphor of travel, memory and precarious balance. Since the late eighties, the artist has developed an imaginary populated by airplanes, submarines and hybrid artifacts that refer to both engineering and dream, placing himself in an intermediate territory between sculpture, painting and object.

The composition is articulated on a large, almost monochromatic surface, where matter acquires an essential protagonism. Rusty iron, lead and wood introduce weight, density and time. The patina of the metal, with its traces and Punctures, dialogues with the veiled background of the canvas, creating a tension between conceptual lightness and physical gravity. The silhouette of the airplane, reduced to a minimal and almost schematic structure, floats suspended in a silent and open space.

The work reveals Riera i Aragó's interest in the dematerialization of traditional painting and its expansion into relief and assemblage. Riera i Aragó synthesizes the object as sign: an essential and refined form that condenses displacement, structural tension and longing for transcendence.

Riera i Aragó is one of the contemporary Catalan artists with the greatest institutional projection. His work is part of important public collections, including the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), the MACBA (Barcelona), the IVAM (Valencia), the Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Ibiza, the Fundació Vila Casas, the Col-lecció "la Caixa", as well as various municipal collections and private foundations in Spain and Europe.