Jordi Alcaraz (eng)
Jordi Alcaraz
Spain, 1963
Jordi Alcaraz’s discourse is rooted in the classical tradition of painting and sculpture, leading to a reflection on volume, language, and time through the use of materials such as water, glass, mirrors, reflections, or books that incorporate this concept.
His artistic language is characterized by visual transgression, the interplay of multiple perspectives, and the combination of transparencies and perforations that reveal hidden, almost magical spaces. Through his works, Jordi Alcaraz establishes an unprecedented, surprising, and metaphorical relationship with the world.
Sculptures, paintings, and drawings emerge through his unique treatment of materials and poetic play on words and unexpected titles. He creates compositions where pigment bags seem to sink into glass surfaces, poetically evoking the origin of painting. Wooden sculptures pierce the methacrylate case that contains them, transitioning from the darkness of night to daylight. Colors escape from their containers through imaginary holes. He also produces impossible portraits.
Obsessed with the craft of art, Alcaraz explores in his works the fundamental gestures of drawing, sculpting, and painting. He focuses more on the act of creation than on the artwork as an end result. His recent works emphasize absence rather than presence. What matters is the sensation of drawing: the moment just before the act, the impression left afterward, but not the artwork itself, not the resulting drawing. There is neither image nor reference to any idea. The artist draws, but no drawing remains. What we see is the empty space left by his gesture, the trace of the materials used, but the absence of anything else is almost absolute.
Jordi Alcaraz breaks materials in various ways, making his work less evocative and more striking. Layers of materials are superimposed like protective shields, gradually constructing increasingly complex layers of meaning.
His artistic career began in the fields of sculpture and printmaking. He regularly exhibits in galleries in Madrid, Barcelona, Cologne, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Trieste, and Zurich. He has also showcased his work in institutions such as Sala Tecla, Fundación Telefónica, the Los Angeles Art Museum, Musée Réattu in Arles, and the Boghossian Foundation in Brussels.
His works are part of collections such as the Biedermann Museum in Donaueschingen, Germany; the Fontanal Cisneros Collection in Miami; the Williams Collection in Massachusetts; Olor Visual in Barcelona; and the Banco Sabadell Foundation.
Jordi Alcaraz. Idea per a un dibuix. 2024. Methacrylate and spiral notebook. 75 x 60 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Partitura. 2024. Resin, collage and grease pencil. 188,5 x 151 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Partitura. 2024. Charcoal, methacrylate, grease pencil, string, and crystal ball. 218 x 162 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Untitled. 2024. Book, resin and oil stick. 48 x 61 x 5 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Autoretrat al taller. 2024. Methacrylate and cardboard. 101 x 85 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. El music. 2024. Charcoal on paper, collage, iron and methacrylate. 102 x 79 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Untitled. 2023. Methacrylate and wire. 42 x 51,5 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Untitled. 2020. Methacrylate, frame. 31 x 26,5 cm
Jordi Alcaraz. Set dibuixos en espera. 2020. Resin and plexiglass on cardboard. 41,5 x 56,5 cm
Jordi Alcaraz
Solo exhibitions
2024
Pentagramas, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2023
Gnònom, Galería Mayoral, Barcelona
2022
From one drawing another, Galería Mayoral, Paris
2021
Cosas elementales, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2019
Nits, Museu de Montserrat, Abadía de Montserrat
Ejercicio de desaparición, Galería Patricia Ready, Vitacura, Chile
2018
Posar roses sobre la gepa closa, Museu de Pintura, Sant Pol de Mar
Defying boundaries, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles
2017
Michael Haas Galerie, Berlin
Kunstlage Haas, Berlin
Esborradis, Fundación Vila Casas, Barcelona
2016
Dibuixos de defensa, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2015
Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin
2014
Galleria Torbandena, Trieste
Inside Out, Saint-Rémy, France
2013
Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles
Stefan Roepke, Cologne
2012
Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona
NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
Tomlinson Kong, New York
2011
Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto
Michael Haas Gallery, Zurich
Sala Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca
2010
Stefan Roepke, Cologne
Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles
Galleria Torbandena, Trieste
2009
Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona
Pneuma, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2008
Stefan Röepke, Cologne
Michael Haas Galerie, Berlin
Sala Tecla, Barcelona (retrospective)
2007
Vides pròpies, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona
2005
Centre Cultural Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca
2004
Galería Altxerri, San Sebastián
NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2003
Galería Vértice, Oviedo
Joan Prats-Artgràfic, Barcelona
2002
Carl Van der Voort Gallery, Ibiza
Galería Fúcares, Ciudad Real
Sala Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca
2001
Joan Prats-Artgràfic, Barcelona
Galería Canem, Castellón
2000
Galería Trinta, Santiago de Compostela
1999
Museum of Modern Art, Sant Pol de Mar, Barcelona
Carl Van der Voort Gallery, Ibiza
Galería Fúcares, Madrid
1998
Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona
1997
Galería Josep Gich, Girona
Group exhibitions (selection)
2019
Cartografies I + II, Centre Cultural de Terrassa, Terrassa
Escala de grises, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Alicante
2018
Painting Still Alive, CoCA, Torun, Poland
2017
Discursos premeditados, Fundación Caja Mediterráneo Collection, Centre del Carme, Valencia
International Printmaking Biennial ICPNA, Lima
2015
Inside Out, Saint-Rémy, France
Clouds, Château des Princes de Croÿ, Roeulx, Belgium
Patrimoni ocult, Museu Domènech i Montaner, Canet de Mar
2014
Boghossian Foundation, Villa Empain, Brussels
Sculpture Unchaperoned, Elisabeth & Klaus Galerie, Vienna
2013
Nuage, Musée Réattu, Arles
2011
Framing Abstraction, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, curated by Peter Selz, Los Angeles
2009
Cherchez la femme, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
Noi cari amici, Galleria Torbandena, Trieste
2004
Espais, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Girona
Sala Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca
Reinventing La Boîte en Valise. Homage to Marcel Duchamp, NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ, Madrid
2003
Museo de Pintura, Sant Pol de Mar, Barcelona
2000
De blanco, vacíos y silencios, Fundación Telefónica, Madrid
Global Art Source, Zurich
1998
Hommage to Joan Brossa, Llorenç Artigás Foundation, Barcelona
1996
55 minutes, Maresme Museum, Barcelona
Hommage to Federico García Lorca, Girona
Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid
1991
Grenchen Triennale, Switzerland
Museums and collections
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona
Fontanal Cisneros Collection, Miami
Williams Collection, New York
Yale University Art Gallery Collection, New Haven
POC – Galila Barzilai Collection, Brussels
Fundación Suñol, Barcelona
Fundació Vila Casas, Barcelona
Biedermann Museum, Donaueschingen
Indra Collection, Madrid
Fundación Banc Sabadell, Barcelona
Majestic Collection, Barcelona
olorVISUAL Collection, Barcelona