New exhibition by García-Alix at Albarrán Bourdais Gallery

10 Apr New exhibition by García-Alix at Albarrán Bourdais Gallery

Posted at 13:44h in Noticias, Uncategorized by García-Alix 0 Comments

Albarrán Bourdais Gallery is hosting a new exhibition by the photographer Alberto García-Alix at its Mahón (Menorca) headquarters. The opening will take place on Saturday, April 26th at 12:00 p.m. and will be preceded by a lecture by the photographer at the Ateneo of Mahón, where he will present the visual lecture “Absence as stimulus” at 11:00 a.m.

The exhibition, that can be visited from April 26th to May 31st, features a total of 58 black and white images taken over the last four decades . Together, they reveal the development and evolution of the photographer’s gaze and his photographic technique. From his earliest photographs, of a more intimate and autobiographical nature, taken with 35mm analog film, to his most recent medium-format (6×6) photographs, where García-Alix reveals his most expressionist side through the use of multiple photographic exposure.

PORTRAIT AND NATURE

Those photographs featuring nature and landscape as their main theme take center stage on the gallery’s ground floor. Shot between 1990 and the early 2000s, these realistic images, reinterpreted through the photographer’s lens, perspire tension and a unique character. “A way of seeing is a way of being,” argues the artist.

The most autobiographical images, those that reflect his world, his experiences, and his closest circle, are displayed on the first floor. They distill the cultural turmoil of 1980s Madrid. During this period, portrait predominates, a discipline that is a constant in his work and is evident throughout the exhibition. Portraits are shown both of his intimate circle and of personalities of the time, captured from an autobiographical perspective, free from stereotypes. “I understand portraiture as a dialogue, a unique confrontation between photographer and model. This encounter and its consequences are often magical,” affirms the artist. Ana Curra, Alaska, Santiago Auserón and Edi Clavo are some of the characters portrayed.

FIERCE EXPRESSIONISM AND PHANTASMAGORIES

Moving towards the second floor of the historic gallery house, we delve into the photographer’s most expressionist side: a set of images from his most recent projects, using the technique of multiple photographic exposure on analog film. With this practice, García-Alix overlaps faces, bodies, paintings, landscapes and different objects to create his own imaginary, to construct his own invented world, suggesting other meanings and textures. On display in this room are some of the photographs that make up the series “Fantasies in the Prado”, a project to which the photographer dedicated four years to repaint some of the masterpieces of Museo del Prado’s art gallery, granting them mystery, tension and movement, from a light sfumato to a disturbing movement. “I photographed immersed in endless resonances and phantasmagoria. Perceiving subjectively and intuitively. I sought to give breath to the subjects and flesh to the statues. I also observed in communication with history, politics, and art, appropriating time, light, and brushstrokes,” explains Alberto García-Alix.

Dispersed throughout the gallery are self-portraits from different eras. It is a discipline he has experimented with from the beginning of his career to the present. In an exercise of discovering himself through photography, Alberto García-Alix has constantly photographed himself. Sometimes raw and clear in scenes of great intimacy, and other times hidden behind blur or double exposure. “Looking is also looking at oneself,” says the artist. “The images are mirrors. I see in them my tensions and even the evolution of the moment in which they were taken.”