Mixed media on Burlap. Excellent condition. Measures 62x146 cm. RIERA I ARAGÓ, Josep Maria (Barcelona, 1954), painter and sculptor, trained at the Superior School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. He debuted individually in 1981, at the Artema gallery in Barcelona. Two years later he participated in the Autumn Salon of that city, and since then he has shown his work all over the world, in leading galleries in Spain, Mexico, Holland, Israel, Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Colombia and the United States. Joined. Particularly noteworthy are the individual exhibitions he has held at the Musée de Ceret (France, 1989), the National Library in Paris (1993), the Museum of Modern Art in Oostende (Belgium, 1997), the Joan Prats gallery in New York (1998 ), the Tassende Gallery in Los Angeles (2003) and the Aalst Museum in Belgium (2006), among others. Since 1983, Riera i Aragó has developed his plastic discourse around machinery, with a symbolic language marked by interest in the means of air and sea transport, which he contemplates decontextualized, separated from their original function. At the same time, his plastic language has been enriched through the deepening of the line/plane and empty/full dialogue. Never repetitive, each “machine” he creates evokes, without pathos or condescension, a clear and comprehensive vision of humanity. With a visual vocabulary limited to simple forms reminiscent of zeppelins, submarines or aeroplanes, Riera i Aragó develops a fruitful iconography full of meaning that, endowed with a clear irony, speaks of the absurd recklessness of man's creations and of the poetic justice that results when said creations turn against him. His work must be understood as a global story, which is related to languages as disparate as astronomy, botany, mathematics or mysticism, and which offers the viewer the possibility of entering a particular universe of great lyricism, where reality and fiction cease to be opposite categories. Riera i Aragó is currently represented at MACBA, the Joan Miró, La Caixa and Vicent Van Gogh foundations, the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg, the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico, the Ceret and Reattu Foundations in Arles in France, the Otani in Japan. and Heilbronn in Germany, among many others.
