EXPRESSAN CONCRETE
MONOGRAPHIC III. Recopilator of 12 Pieces artistic in cement/concrete
“Close your eyes and imagine the exhibition you would like to design. Then, turn it into a digital experience”. Those were the words that gave me the necessary impulse to carry out, in these times of fictitious normality, the Monographic III project, a compilation of artistic pieces in cement/concrete.
A generic title with no misleading claims. An open call for proposals that reaches a greater number of projects. A process that is always active at EXPRESSAN: researching artists, compiling pieces, shattering the information that remains in the background and giving visibility to these proposals with a different view of our world.
In these five years we have published more than 20 articles dedicated to works made with concrete, among which the previous compilations I and II stand out.
The pieces we have talked about in these articles have been discoveries that have emerged from spaces, exhibition halls or art fairs.
What began as a micro-passion for a material that marked modern Architecture and a whole generation of architects, today we know that it is a defining element of our present, and that there are many artists and collectors who admire and respect everything that this material expresses and can transmit to us.
In this edition, Monographic III is made up of a selection of twelve artists of international level, who draw a map without borders of masters in this material. Twelve artistic pieces of bare concrete and sincere texture to tackle very different themes, making use of metaphor or symbolism.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
JEFF MUHS – DIEGO DE LA TORRE – DAVID UMEMOTO – WILLIAM BRAITHWAITE – SUSANNE PIOTTER – WILLIAM LEGGETT – ISRAEL TIRADO – MERCEDES LARA – ANDREA GULLI – CRISTIAN CHAVIRA – SONIA SCACCABAROZZI – LUCAS DE LA RUBIA
El Hormigón busca la belleza
To paraphrase Louis Kahn: “Even concrete wants to be something more. It wants to be much more”. A humble material, chosen by a generation of architects as the best ally to change the world. An ethical idea which, as a foundation, allows us to understand the constructions of Brutalism, those volumes which today still cause a visual impact which generates landscape.
Concrete is a malleable material, where the different forms it reaches have allowed it to cross the frontiers of architecture. In addition to contributing to constructive rigour, it seeks beauty in each technical solution. A beauty in the forms and textures that flees from surface perfection. It only requires that they honour him, that they do not change him, promising to be authentic and to move at a deeper level. That is because concrete is a material chosen by artists and creative people, not only as a means of expression but also as an aesthetic idea in search of truth.
This compilation gathers twelve artistic projects made with this material, organizing the works of art in three different blocks: in the first group, the concrete is explored as a body that provokes liberation; in the second group, the concrete is poured building space and architecture; and in the third group, the concrete dialogues with other materials to evoke emotions.
I. Cuerpo. Poética del tacto
Jeff Muhs‘ abstract sculptures are a physical record of the study of pressure in concrete. The process he has called “Dynamic Free Casting” plays with the fluidity and the mass of the material to seduce us through the unpredictable recreation of new forms: Volumes of grey concrete, which leave the material protected only with colourful and suggestive bodies.
Jeff Muhs
Jeff Muhs (New York) is recognized for his innovative artistic work, which encompasses a wide variety of genres, techniques and media. Among his latest projects are his “Slipstream” paintings, which revisit and update abstract painting, or the “Dynamic Free Casting” concrete sculptures, which redefine the sculptural process and add his unique vision to the discipline.
GNFNEW. ©Jeff Muhs
Diego de la Torre presents a more realistic sculptural work, where the concrete is part of the construction of the female body and the poetics of the image. The material helps to consolidate the symbolic representation of the message he wants to convey to us: strength in femininity. The nude gives the work a “now and forever” character, but with a renewed vision of the current context.
Diego de la Torre
Diego de la Torre (Jaén) is a specialist in the sculptor’s trade. His creations, both in carving and modelling, provide a contextual revision of figuration in contemporary art.
“Expresión en tres dimensiones”. ©Diego de la Torre
II. Construyendo espacio y arquitectura
David Umemoto‘s structures present the union between sculpture and architecture. Poured concrete recreates buildings from his personal imagination, constructions that take us to utopian worlds. The perfection of the whole process allows him to open up gaps and galleries in the pieces, bringing light and maintaining their stability, and at the same time opening up a kind of entrance that invites us to enter and walk around inside.
David Umemoto
David Umemoto (Montréal, Canadá) is a concrete architect. With a strong unity in his production, he builds small-scale artistic structures with the same rigour and discipline as if they were real buildings.
“Dos Torres, 2020”. ©David Umemoto
Hormigón, 33x33x53 cm
From a more material and minimalist review, William Braithwaite‘s pieces fragment details of brutalist architecture that, through the repetition of modules, recreate beautiful visual compositions. The concrete builds stairs to nowhere, interspersing the full and the empty to suggest the final volume that dialogues with its surroundings.
William Braithwaite
The work of William Braithwaite (UK) creates a dialogue between sculpture and architecture with forms freed from their original function. A constant exploration of volume and the creative process through repetition, which he carries out in all his artistic production.
“Concreción, 2019”. ©William Braithwaite
In her artefacts, Susanne Piotter shares abstract materialism with brutalist constructions. Her search for transformations in the architectural and urban landscape is transferred to the pieces as a conceptual charge. Concrete constructs three-dimensional buildings or objects that originate an impact, transforming the environment as well as visually, with which to glimpse a change in the way we communicate with the place.
Susanne Piotter
Susanne Piotter (Berlín) is an artist who analyses and examines environments and places to produce her screen prints, sculptures and installations. She uses both analogue and digital media to produce her works.
“Artefacto 18”. ©Susanne Piotter
Hormigón, 17,5×14,5×14,5 cm
William Leggett‘s monuments bring sculpture closer to the international style of architecture. His characteristic visual language makes his modular objects give the illusion that what is seen belongs to a futuristic or science fiction world. The geometry of his pieces serves as a mediation between the existing relations between man, technology and the environment. It is a combination of concept, technique and form that is absolutely refined and in balance.
William Leggett
William Leggett (Perth, Australia) is a visual artist, director of the artists’ collective Studio Payoka. In his artistic work he implements digital tools at the design level and a technology applied to the process that allows him to achieve innovative results in concrete.
“Monumento 14”. ©William Leggett
[Módulos 26, 30, 17, 22, 25]
Hormigón, acero. 200x30x30 cm
“Módulo_17, 2020”. ©William Leggett
Hormigón, acero.40x30x30 cm
Israel Tirado‘s piece has in its exercise a commitment to material space. This artist works with the traces of the abandoned constructions made of concrete, where the course of time has not only altered their physical properties, but has also diluted and altered in that time “that desire to be something else”. The concrete structures he finds in his artistic work are transformed into a metaphorical space for his video creation.
Israel Tirado
Israel Tirado (Sevilla) is a multidisciplinary artist who explores painting, sculpture and video-creation to investigate the space and the borders between art and architecture.
III. Emociones, encuentros y conexiones
Mercedes Lara works with time as a model of landscape and open space. In the “Foto Fija” series, she talks about the rhythm of nature and the changes in geography that occur over time. In this work, the concrete is joined to the porcelain relief, giving it the support in the face of a fictitious instability. A relief that invites us to reconnect with the natural space and at the same time reminds us of our presence.
Mercedes Lara
Mercedes Lara (Madrid) is an artist who works in installation, sculpture and painting. With a consolidated career in the current contemporary framework, she is represented by the Lucía Mendoza Gallery (Madrid), where her latest work has been presented: “Inhabiting the process”.
“Foto Fija”. ©Mercedes Lara
Hormigón, porcelana y pan de oro. 51×22,5×33,5 cm
Andrea Gulli experiments with materials, colours and textures, using geometric abstraction to evoke emotions. In his constant search for that visual balance that unifies all his work, he takes his sculpture to be contemplated from the wall. The black concrete coexists with the grey concrete transmitting primitive sensations, which in this case are the calm and the silence, leaving us to face the essential.
Andrea Gulli
Andrea Gulli (Torino, Italia) is a self-taught artist who leaves the legal profession to devote himself exclusively to art. In his work he uses different techniques to approach the discipline of abstract painting as a three-dimensional framework with which to experiment with forms, colours and textures.
“Silencio estético 26-20, 2020”. ©Andrea Gulli
Acrílico sobre cemento negro, 70x70x2,5 cm
Concrete is expressive in itself and attempts to codify the artist’s metaphorical imperatives. In Cristian Chavira‘s case, the elements chosen for his work, concrete and files, help to emphasize its characteristics, the heavy thing in front of the light thing or the amorphous thing in front of the specific thing, serving to approach the conception of a utilitarian object and its relation with the human being. “How are objects born? is a series of pieces that arise to answer some questions derived from the different conceptual processes in the creation of consumer objects.
Cristian Chavira
The work of Cristian Chavira (Guadalajara, México) is materialised through the use of various media, ranging from images to sculpture. His line of research, which stems from his studies in industrial design, investigates issues such as the conception and production of utilitarian objects.
“Serie How are objects born? 2020”. ©Cristian Chavira
Hormigón y limas. 25x12x18 cm.
There are pieces where there is a union of dependence between the artist and the society to which he belongs and it contextualises him. In the case of Sonia Scaccabarozzi‘s work, the combination of concrete and threads shows us the emotional culture of a society where increasing importance is given to the encounters and connections that are created, intentionally or not, with others. Here concrete acts as the firm and sincere basis on which these connections are built, helping them to give the best results.
Sonia Scaccabarozzi
Sonia Scaccabarozzi (Brianza, Italia) is an artist who works with sculpture and installation with different materials such as concrete, wood or paper. The visual language and the aesthetic composition of her work are recognized for inducing positivism and emotional serenity.
“Enlaces inesperados 0,20”. ©Sonia Scaccabarozzi
Lucas de la Rubia‘s piece shows the heterogeneous coexistence of two materials that dialogue: wood, as a porous and light material, and concrete, which provides hardness and heaviness. The work shows a concrete relief as if it were a fossil, where the traces of customs are left, the remains of a society, questioning the position of the spectator within it, what lasts and what is lost.
Lucas de la Rubia
Lucas de la Rubia (Madrid) is an artist who works with sculpture, painting and graphic arts from an experimental and abstract practice. He uses different materials, such as plaster, concrete or wood, as a plastic solution to his research on the dualities that coexist in and between people.
“Pluma de Menandro” ©Lucas de la Rubia
Hormigón, maderas de haya y abeto. 50x38x4 cm.
MONOGRAPHIC III, A COLLECTION OF 12 PIECES IN CEMENT/CONCRETE
Thank you to all participants for your kindness and for belonging to this third edition.
JEFF MUHS – DIEGO DE LA TORRE – DAVID UMEMOTO – WILLIAM BRAITHWAITE – SUSANNE PIOTTER – WILLIAM LEGGETT – ISRAEL TIRADO – MERCEDES LARA – ANDREA GULLI – CRISTIAN CHAVIRA – SONIA SCACCABAROZZI – LUCAS DE LA RUBIA
- Organiza y promueve: EXPRESSAN
- Dirección y curadora: Sandra Galindo
- Colaboración en la edición y equipo: Estudio oneprocessart
- Creación de vídeo: Israel Tirado
Créditos de las fotografías-audiovisuales: ©sus autores y artistas
VIRTUAL CATALOGUE >>> MONOGRAPHIC III, A COLLECTION OF 12 PIECES IN CEMENT/CONCRETE
VIDEO >>> MONOGRAPHIC III, A COLLECTION OF 12 PIECES IN CEMENT/CONCRETE
Participation in the section "Rincón del Lector" of the Cement and Concrete Technical Magazine for its Nº 1002 and here you have the result.
OPEN CALL: EXPRESSAN prepares for Monograph IV
If you want to participate as an artist in Monograph IV, collaborate as a patron or sponsor, write to us at:
info@expressan.com
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