【台北·敦仁】啟航The Voyage－里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢 Riera i Aragó 亞洲首個展 2023.6.17 – 9.10

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“啟航” The Voyage
－里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢Riera i Aragó 亞洲首個展
台北·敦仁

里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢Riera i Aragó（Spain, b. 1954）出生於⻄班牙，⻄班牙聖霍爾迪美術學院藝術學士，現居住創作於巴塞隆納。阿拉貢Aragó 為西班牙著名藝術家，五十年創作生涯代表的天上螺旋漿、海中潛水艇的圖像意念深入人心，融合抽象表現主義及未來主義的繪畫、雕塑、版畫作品，混合機械、航行獨特風格聞名。曾在眾多歐洲博物館舉辦個展，德國海布隆市政博物館、法國亞爾梵谷基金會、西班牙巴塞隆納米羅基金會、比利時奧斯坦德現代藝術博物館，並於美國邁阿密和紐約、法國巴黎、德國科隆、弗萊堡和達姆施塔特、荷蘭阿姆斯特丹和海牙、哥倫比亞波哥大等多地個展展出。作品飛機Airplanes系列、潛水艇Submarines系列及島嶼之海Arals系列分別獲得法國亞爾梵谷基金會、⻄班牙巴塞隆納市政廳、比利時西法蘭德斯省旅遊局和芝加哥波音公司等機構永久收藏。

Fondation Folon, Belgium

Musée d’art moderne André Malraux

Musée d’Art moderne de Céret

Musée de Collioure ,France

1970年代創作初期，里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢Riera i Aragó便自行創作出一套圖像語言，記錄365天的生活。1980年代開始，他對深海環境、機械及飛機產生興趣，像是鑄造技術、機械零件及金屬模具等，他採用鉛、鋅材料製作雕塑與浮雕系列。過往遊歷歐洲的經歷，讓他結合風景元素融入雕塑，甚至將沙灘上的碎片與木材放入青銅雕塑中。從他將拆解船隻後的鐵皮融入雕塑裡的實驗開始，鑄鐵製成的螺旋槳元素變得無比重要。五十年的藝術生涯中，阿拉貢Aragó 創作出許多雋永的系列作品包括：島嶼之海Arals系列、飛機Airplanes系列、船舶Boats系列、浮雕Low Reliefs系列、潛水艇Submarines系列及島嶼風光Landscapes/ Islands系列等。1990年代，他為⻄班牙巴塞隆納市政廳客製作品“深埋的潛水艇 Buried Submarine”及“紅色大螺旋槳飛機Gran avió d’hèlix vermella”、德國海布隆市政博物館收藏“牆上的潛水艇Submarine on the wall”、法國亞爾梵谷基金會收藏飛機Airplanes系列作品“Airplane 1.05PM”，皆為其創作生涯重要的里程碑。

Diary- from 7 March 1982 – 6 March 1983

From the beginning, his work manifested itself as indebted to mechanics, physics and the inspiring principles of modern science. "The machine, its form and its function, are the totems of the 20th century, devices that fascinate the artist and that is why he transforms them into instruments at his service. If in other times the artists had taken the landscape, the mythological narratives or the human figure as inspirational themes, Riera i Aragó opted for one of the most characteristic emblems of his time, the world of the machine and artifacts in general, but he did not do so by following a literal or mimetic realism, but speaking ironically of the machine , of its transience, of its ability to suggest, in a round trip from the real to the imaginary that ultimately makes all these references an immense excuse to make art "(Daniel Giralt Miracle)

Submarines series

Airplanes series

Boat series

Arals series

Low Relief series

Landspace series

If nature had always been present in a certain way in the work of Riera i Aragó, even as a background landscape, as we approach the 21st century the machine changes its non-functionality in a certain way to get closer to the values of environmentalism and nature conservation. Those imaginary spaces for his sculptures, which have always attracted him and which are in fact the natural environment for submarines and airplanes, such as the sea and the air, are now claimed and gain prominence as can be seen in the series of species protected or in the monumental sculptures of the Aral in front of the sea.

本次展覽“啟航”The Voyage，展出里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢Riera i Aragó創作核心元素的繪畫及雕塑作品，包含天空深海的飛機潛水艇，及其富含意義的世界觀：“綠松石上的彩色飛機Colored angle airplane on turquoise”（2019），或是“金色海面上的小船Boat on golden sea”（2017）、“兩架飛機與世界World and two airplanes”（2019），表現在有形及無形的空間中轉換，並融合了塗鴉與拼貼技巧，小小的螺旋槳飛機從實體跨越至神秘的空間，是一場歷練、挑戰或是生命的獨白。今年最新的小雕塑系列，作品EM0423（2023）、EM1023（2023）、EM1223（2023）等，此系列過去皆以座標系統的星座為名：螺旋槳、輪子及尾翼決定了雕塑的形態，不斷在平衡間旅行，向天空打開，如同各種人類情感，變幻莫測。阿拉貢Aragó 談到：「旅行是我展覽標題中常見的主題之一，它指的是藝術所代表的旅程，生命本身就像旅程一樣。」

In addition, he is the author of large sculptures for public spaces.

Among his exhibitions held in recent years, the extensive retrospectives dedicated to him by three museums in France stand out: the Musée d'art modern de Céret and the Musée de Collioure, as well as the Musée d'art Modern André Malraux, MuMa, Le Havre. Also the presentation of his large-scale sculptures in the gardens of the Tournay-Solvay Park in Brussels, within the framework of the exhibition dedicated to him by the Fondation Folon.

‘啟航’ The Voyage－里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢Riera i Aragó 亞洲首個展
媒體記者會Press preview
2023.6.16 Fri. 2pm-4pm

開幕酒會 Opening Reception （藝術家在場）
2023. 6.17 Sat. 2:30pm – 5pm（開幕式 3pm-3:30pm）

Artist Talk藝術家對談：Riera i Aragó vs Elsa Wang
2023.6.18 Sun. 2:30pm – 3:30pm
報名：https://www.accupass.com/go/artisttalkriera2023

展期：2023.6.17 – 9.10
Bluerider ART Taipei · Dunren
Tue.-Sun., 10am – 7pm
1F, No. 10, Lane 101, Section 1, Da'an Road, Da'an District, Taipei City

Artist

里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢 Riera i Aragó
（Spain, b. 1954）

Riera i Aragó (Barcelona 1954) belongs to that generation of artists who in the eighties took up the languages of painting and sculpture, being one of the protagonists of the recovery of the sculptural practice that the avant-garde of the thirties, from of iron, they had begun. After the dematerialization of the work of art that conceptual art entailed, and once pictorial informalism in all its versions had been exhausted, they discovered in the eighties that sculpture unrelated to statuary and naturalism had enormous expressive possibilities and at the same time, he was capable of conversing with the urban scene, the center of modern life. As one of the followers of those avant-garde, in the beginning he maintained a special sensitivity for traditional materials -iron, bronze, wood...-, which, many times, he recovered and recycled to focus all his plastic discourse on the environment of archeology of machinery.

Fondation Folon, Belgium

Musée d’art moderne André Malraux

Musée d’Art moderne de Céret

Musée de Collioure ,France

Diary- from 7 March 1982 – 6 March 1983

Submarines series

Airplanes series

Boat series

Arals series

Low Relief series

Landspace series

媒體報導Press

里埃拉．伊．阿拉貢 Riera i Aragó
（Spain, b. 1954）

Solo Exhibitions
2023 Riera i Aragó. The Voyage. Bluerider Art. Taipei, Taiwan
2023 Josep Riera i Aragó. Der Traum-Reisende. Galerie Boisserėe, Kōln. Alemania
2022 Riera i Aragó. El bell viatge. Galeria Marlborough. Barcelona. España
2021 Riera i Aragó. El viaje silencioso. Galeria Marlborough. Madrid, España
2018 Riera i Aragó. La mirada del geógrafo. Galeria Marlborough, Barcelona. Spain
2018 Galerie Baudoin Lebon. At Élysées, Paris, Francia
2018 Riera I Aragó, Submarins 1985-2018. Fundació Fran Daurel Perramón de Ventalló, Ventalló, Girona, Spain
2017 Art and Advice Gallery, Hasselt, Belgium
2016 Skulpturen, Bilder, Zeichnungen, Galerie Franz Swetec, Darmstadt-Griesheim, Germany
2016 Obra sobre paper i escultures 1988-2015, Galeria Eude, Barcelona, Spain
2016 Oeuvres récentes, Galerie Art Set, Limoges, France
2015 Art Karlsruhe, Galerie Franz Swetec, Karlsruhe, Germany
2015 Skulpturen, Bilder, Zeichnungen, Galerie Franz Swetec, Düsseldorf, Germany
2015 Galeria Sa Pleta Freda, Son Servera, Mallorca, Spain
2014 Riera i Aragó Explorations, Fondation Folon, La Hulpe, Belgium
2014 Summer solstici – Rituals, Tasende Gallery, La Jolla, San Diego,USA
2013 Riera i Aragó, Aguafuertes, Instituto Cervantes, Hamburg, Germany
2013 Riera i Aragó, Aguafuertes, Instituto Cervantes, Bremen, Germany
2013 Riera i Aragó, Prints, Art Partners Finland Oy, Helsinki, Finland
2013 Josep Riera i Aragó 11-12-13, Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris, France.
2012 Riera i Aragó, Aguafuertes, Instituto Cervantes, Atenas, Greece
2012 Josep Riera i Aragó, Galerie Art Set , Limoges, France
2012 Riera i Aragó, Aguafuertes, Instituto Cervantes, Varsovia, Poland
2012 Riera i Aragó, Aguafuertes, Instituto Cervantes, Cracovia, Poland
2012 Le rêve du navigateur, Musée d’art moderne André Malraux – MuMa, Le Havre, France
2012 Riera i Aragó, Instituto Cervantes, Frankfurt, Germany
2011 Le rêve du navigateur, Musée d’art Moderne de Céret i Musée de Collioure, France
2011 Obres Selectes, Michael Dunev Art Projects, Torroella de Montgrí, Girona, Spain
2010 RIERA I ARAGÓ. 6.684. Galeria Joan Prats-Artgràfic. Barcelona, Spain
2009 Galerie Hüsstege, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2009 RIERA I ARAGÓ. Wege unter dem Waser. Camins sota l’aigua. Kunst Galerie Fürth, Fürth, Germany
2007 Art Ámsterdam, Artline Gallery. Amsterdam, Nertherlands
2007 Artline Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007 Espècies protegides Galeria Joan Prats-Artgràfic, Barcelona, Spain
2007 Galeria Múltiple, Madrid, Spain
2006 Galerie Hüsstege, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2006 Arals Meet the North Sea, Beaufort 2006, Bredene, PMMK Museum, Belgium
2006 Aguafuertes, Museo Murallas Reales, Ceuta, Spain
2006 Hauser Hofmann, Kunst-Art-Arte, Thayngen, Switzerland
2006 Galeria Arcadi Calzada, Olot, Girona, Spain
2006 Aguafuertes, Musée d’Aalst, Aalst, Belgium
2005 Galerie De Rijk, Den Haag, Netherlands
2005 SE7 Espai d’Art, Xàbia, Alacant, Spain
2005 Michael Dunev Art Projets, Torroella de Montgrí, Girona, Spain
2005 Galeria El Carme, Vic, Spain
2005 Paul Greenaway Gallery, Adelaide, Australia
2004 Illes, Barques, Icebergs. Galeria Joan Prats-Artgràfic, Barcelona, Spain
2004 Los años 80, Galeria Alejandro Sales, Barcelona, Spain
2004 Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Aalst, Belgium
2004 Riera i Aragó, Aiguaforts, Caixa de Girona, Girona, Spain
2003 Galerie Levy, Hamburg, Germany
2003 Galerie Hüsstege, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2003 Tasende Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2003 Tasende Gallery, La Jolla, San Diego, USA
2002 Galerie De Rijk, Den Haag, Netherlands
2002 Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, USA
2002 Galeria Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
2001 Galerie Indigo, Damme, Belgium
2001 19 màquines en vol, Museu d’Història de la Ciutat, Girona, Spain
2001 Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Aalst, Belgium
2001 Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, USA
2000 Galerie Hüsstege, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
2000 Galerie de Rijk, Den Haag, Netherlands
2000 Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona, Spain
1999 Col.legi d’Arquitectes de Girona, Girona, Spain
1999 Sala Cai Luzán, Zaragoza, Spain
1998 Art Miami 98, Galeria Joan Prats, Miami,USA
1998 Galeria Era Bauró, Andorra.
1998 Galeria Joan Prats, New York, USA
1998 Galeria Pelaires, Palma de Mallorca Spain
1998 Galeria Rosa Pous, Girona Spain
1998 Riera i Aragó a Cap Roig, Fundació Caixa de Girona, Palafrugell, Girona Spain
1998 Riera i Aragó Escultures, Parc Nou d’Olot, Girona, Spain
1998 Galerie La Cité, Luxembourg.
1998 Galerie de Rijk, Den Haag, Netherlands
1998 Art Cologne’98, Galerie Franz Swetec, Colònia, Germany.
1998 Galerie Franz Swetec, Darmstadt, Germany
1998 Riera i Aragó, Galería Zaragoza Gráfica, Zaragoza, Spain
1997 Galeria d’Art Arcadi Calzada, Olot, Girona, Spain
1997 PMMK, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium.
1997 Galeria d’Art Horizon, Colera, Girona, Spain
1997 Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Aalst, Belgium
1997 Artline Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1997 Galerie Pro Arte, Friburg, Germany
1997 Künst ’97, Zürich, Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Switzerland
1997 Festival Garonne, Pont Neuf, Toulousse, France
1997 Galerie Hüsstege, Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
1996 Galería Garcés Velásquez, Bogotà, Colombia.
1996 Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona, Spain
1996 Art Cologne ’96, Galerie Boisserée, Köln, Germany
1996 Städtische Museen, Heilbronn,Germany
1996 Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, France
1996 Casal Solleric, Ajuntament de Palma, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
1995 Galeria Joan Prats – Artgràfic, Barcelona, Spain
1995 Galerie Marwan Hoss, París, France
1995 Galeria Cyprus, Sant Feliu de Boada, Girona, Spain
1995 Galerie La Cité, Luxembourg.
1995 Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Aalst, Belgium
1994 ARCO ’94, Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Madrid, Spain
1994 Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Aalst, Belgium
1993 Galeria Rita García, València, Belgium
1993 ARCO ’93, Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Madrid, Spain
1993 Galeria Sa Pleta Freda, Son Servera, Mallorca, Spain
1993 Estampa ’93, Boza Editor, Madrid, Spain
1993 Galeria Era Bauro, Andorra.
1993 Art Multiple ’93, Boza Editor, Düsseldorf, Germany
1993 Galeria Joan Mas. Aiguaforts. Cadaqués, Girona, Spain
1993 Bibliothèque Nationale, Boza Editor, París, France
1992 ARCO ’92, Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Madrid.
1992 ARCO ’92, Vera Van Laer Gallery, Madrid.
1991 ARCO ’91, Vera Van Laer Gallery, Madrid.
1991 ARCO ’91, Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Madrid.
1991 Franz Swetec Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
1991 Galeria Joan Prats – Artgràfic, Barcelona, Spain
1991 Galeria 13, Ventalló, Girona, Spain
1990 Vera Van Laer Gallery, Knokke, Belgium
1990 Galerie La Cité, Luxembourg
1989 Galerie Boisserée, Colònia, Germany
1989 Arran d’aire, Antic Escorxador, Figueres, Girona, Spain
1989 Musée d’Art Moderne, Collioure, France
1989 Museu de Ceret, Ceret, France
1989 Galerie Boulakia, París, France
1989 FIAC’89, Galerie Boulakia, Paris, France
1988 Galería Columela, Madrid, Spain
1988 Galeria Sebastià Petit, Lleida, Spain
1988 Galeria Contemporáneo, Jesi, Italy .
1988 Galerie Denise Van de Velde, Aalst, Belgium
1988 Galeria 24, Barcelona, Spain
1987 ARCO ’87, Galeria Rene Metras. Espai Joan Mas, Madrid.
1986 Galeria Guereta, Barcelona, Spain
1985 Galeria Joan Prats, Barcelona, Spain
1984 Espai 10, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain
1983 Molí Casals, Calonge, Girona, Spain
1981 Institut d’Estudis Nord-americans, Barcelona, Spain
1980 Galeria Gurb 63, Vic, Barcelona, Spain
1980 Galeria Artema, Barcelona, Spain
1979 Galeria Vergara Ocho, Barcelona, Spain
1979 Galeria Tamariu, Palafrugell, Girona, Spain
1979 Galeria Palau de Caramany, Girona, Spain
1978 Galeria Roma, Barcelona, Spain
1978 Galeria Tamariu, Palafrugell, Girona, Spain
1977 Galeria Bonanova, Barcelona, Spain
1977 Art Galeria Covarsi, Arenys de Mar, Barcelona. Spain
1975 Galeria Anglada, Barcelona, Spain
1975 Galeria Estudi Athenea, Barcelona, Spain
1974 Galeria Anglada, Barcelona, Spain
1973 Galeria Anglada, Barcelona, Spain

WORKS IN MUSEUMS AND SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Ajuntament de Barcelona (Escultura pública)
Ajuntament de Figueres, Girona (Escultura pública)
Ajuntament de Sant Cugat, Barcelona (Escultura pública)
CODA Museum, Apeldoorn, Países Bajos
Col.lecció Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona
Col.lecció Institut d’Estudis Nord-americans, Barcelona
Col.lecció Testimoni. Fundació “La Caixa”, Barcelona
Col·lecció Bassat d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona
Col·lecció Creu Roja de Catalunya, Barcelona
Colección BBVA, Madrid, Spain
Colección CAI Luzán, Zaragoza
Colección OlorVisual, Ernesto Ventós, Barcelona
Coleccion Pere Serra, Soller, Mallorca
Colección Rega, Zürich, Suiza
Collectie NOG Van Het. SNS Reaal Fonds, Países Bajos
Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles, Francia
Fons d’art del diari Avui, Barcelona
Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona
Fundació Perramón de Ventalló Art Contemporani, Ventalló, Girona
Fundación Fran Daurel, Barcelona
Municipality of Roosendaal, Paises Bajos (Escultura pública)
Museu d’Art contemporani, MACBA, Barcelona
Musée d’art moderne André Malraux, MuMa Le Havre, Francia
Musée d’Art Moderne, Luxembourg
Musée d’art moderne de Céret, Francia
Musée de Collioure, Francia
Musée Réattu, Arles, Francia
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Union Fenosa, La Coruña
Museu Arxiu de Llavaneres, Barcelona
Museu Can Framis, Fundació Vilacasas, Barcelona
Museu Can Mario, Fundació Vilacasas, Palafrugell, Girona
Museu d’Historia de la Ciutat, Girona
Museu de l’Hospitalet, Hospitalet de Llobregat
Museu de Montserrat, Barcelona
Museu de Valls, Tarragona
Museum Otani, Nishinomiya, Japón
Nishinomiya City Hall, Japón (Escultura pública)
Parc d’escultures Jardins de Cap Roig, Obra Social La Caixa, Girona
Reflex Museum, Amsterdam, Países Bajos
Stiftung Nantesbusch Sammlung, München, Alemania
Stadhuis Mesen, Bélgica (Escultura pública)
Städtische Museen, Heilbronn, Alemania
Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Países Bajos
The Boeing Company, Chicago, USA
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Universitat Ramon Llull, Barcelona

Art Critique

Riera i Aragó: a journey through fifty years of experience

Conxita Oliver

Riera i Aragó is one of the artists who emerged and stood out in the eighties in Catalonia as part of a generation that reactivated sculpture, assimilating new concepts and object processes. Half a century after his first exhibition, the Marlborough Gallery presents "El bell viatge", an essential and very personal itinerary with a set of works that the artist has decided to keep throughout his career. Through its most significant stages, the guiding thread becomes the dysfunctional artifact capable of flying or navigating. Since its inception, its creation manifested itself as indebted to mechanics, physics and the inspiring principles of modern science, and also very close to a mythical and ancestral world. Three-dimensional compositions, ironic scenographies that can refer both to totemic themes of a magical and ritual dimension, as well as to technologies of modern society in reference to the critique of the irrational power of machines.

The new Catalan sculpture that emerged in the 1980s opened up new paths, taking up the weight of the Catalan sculptural tradition, founded by Julio González and by a review of the key figures of the avant-garde. Riera i Aragó (Barcelona, 1954) is one of the protagonists of the recovery of the sculptural practice that the avant-garde of the thirties, starting with iron, had begun. As one of his followers, he maintains a special sensitivity for traditional materials that he often recycles to focus all of his plastic discourse around mythical scenes about machinery. In many cases, the passage of time is observed through these rescued materials and recomposed into witnesses of industrialization.

Interested in mechanical gadgets, flying and aquatic devices, recreational physics and scientific-literary culture, he has produced a very characteristic playful and poetic iconography, inspired by the world of submarines, zeppelins, planes, propellers, wheels... all of this is the axis of many of his sculptures and installations. Some references that he has been debugging and loading with anti-war messages and awareness of climate change. The works of Riera i Aragó are essential for understanding some of the emblems of our time, where devices and hardware in general and their relationship with nature or ecological values are always present.

Transgressor of situations, great nostalgic for the past and tireless traveler, the artist has often insisted on accentuating the archaeologist concept of his work with a catastrophic accent of abandoned marine vestiges or aged industrial residues due to the passage of time, always loaded with memory, since what is most interesting in Riera i Aragó is the footprint, the trace and the footprint. Around these references he has created a very personal cosmos that he has been formally synthesizing until reaching the current stage in which austerity and sobriety have evolved into mere skeletons, into light constructions of airlines that are drawn in space. His sculptures and paintings have ended up configuring a cartography of fantastic worlds and impossible mechanisms that, far from being an illusion, appear strangely tangible on a round trip from reality to fiction.

The exhibition "The beautiful journey" allows us to travel a long and prolific journey, where we find the different materials, techniques and supports that Riera i Aragó has used to create its airplanes, submarines and different devices. It brings together a represented selection of works that are part of his private collection, that he has kept over the years and that are part of his most intimate work. Although the reference to the machine seems to be the main character, in reality it goes much further, as Vicenç Altaió points out in the catalog text: “I like it when Riera i Aragó explains that the pair of technological artifacts comes from the schematic sign of a man and a woman placed horizontally. Of standing in the recumbent body and its psychic transformation. The artist began his work by creating an iconicity of figurative signs, they are schematic drawings until, by reduction and personalization, the plane, a body that rises, becomes the first letter of the alphabet. ” A metamorphosis that changes these sculptures into anthropological approximations; in characters that become inhabitants of imagined spaces.

The exhibition, conceived as a walk through the most recurring themes of his creation, begins in the eighties and ends today. But, if the fascination for the functional machine has been valued artistically throughout history, from the Renaissance to the present, on the contrary, the vision that Riera i Aragó grants to his ingenuity is to deny its usefulness and the its functionality. In this sense, this negation fascinates him because of the character of remainder or waste that it drags along: it transmutes the functions of the most modern submarine and ship or the most futuristic airplane until it metamorphoses them into useless gears, as a metaphor for the failure of the modern and technical era.

His unique language began in 1981 when he set out to draw a picture of what happened during the day. It was an exercise that he completed for 365 days and during that time he also developed an interest in machines, the exploration of unknown landscapes and object recovery, without neglecting the artists he admired such as Miró and Klee. The artist himself affirms that thanks to this exercise, he found a series of formal symbols that have constituted the essence of everything he has done. It is during this time that he will begin to produce works using the remains of scrapped ships and the propellers will be more and more present in his works. Each country he visits, be it Morocco, Japan or Australia, inspires him to explore new territories and strengthen his own discourse.

With a limited visual vocabulary, Riera i Aragó develops a fertile iconography loaded with meaning that, endowed with a clear irony, speaks of the absurd recklessness of man's creations when they turn against him. All of his work is anti-war, since for example when the submarine is presented as a ruin it is a criticism of our civilization of which only loopholes will remain. Along these lines, the installation Submarinos de las islas Baleares (1997) is very impressive, made up of seven hanging submarines with a diversification of the chromaticism of the patinas to such an extent that each element has a different chromatic finish. These marine remains become gigantic three-dimensional brushstrokes, with an arid gesture, a rustic body and solid residue, which collapse along the wall. Riera i Aragó's peculiar planes, represented only by a few propellers, are present in the exhibition in different works, such as 48 black planes (1992); an installation with forty-eight small-format flying utensils. Likewise, the great triptych Airplane (1987) brings us closer to the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, through a kind of scientific diagrams that draw cryptic and hidden presences. Another recurring theme such as the seabed is represented by Mar y barca (1999), a structure, at ground level, made with bronze and gold leaf that sacralizes the waters of our oceans.

The works in which sculpture and painting converge have been the subject of dedication by Riera i Aragó since l990, manifested between forms in real space and those represented on a flat surface. In this sense, what she tries is to collect the same problems that she addresses in three-dimensionality, but only altering the means of expression. In her hands, the two-dimensional work ceases to be the support of a representation or fiction to become a phenomenon of a signic nature. The series of twenty-four drawings entitled Australia (2005) -which recreate light flying constructions- show the contrasting forces in a game of tensions between the horizontal and the vertical.

From the year 2000 she has not abandoned machines, but her work takes a turn towards nature. She then modifies the shape of the plane into anthropomorphic beings that observe the horizon and that sea that is drying up, as a premonition of the future desertification of the planet. She progressively synthesizes the artifact extremely, seeking maximum simplicity, to reach the current stage in which she is characterized by austerity, sobriety and formal purity, forming weightless architectures with a great sense of space. Variations on an elongated airplane (2022), produced in bronze painted in primary colors, affirm their horizontality as majestic current totems.

Riera i Aragó's ability to create stories, invent and find variations on a theme or an idea seems infinite; a universe of his, highly imaginative and refined, which is even more complex to conceive taking into account the imposition of formal brevity. At times, the artist himself has misrepresented the role of his artifacts by making a flying submarine, an aquatic zeppelin or often transforming them into monsters or animals, such as the series of mosquito-planes, or submarines with a fish tail.

Some individual exhibitions in galleries and museums include the Städtische Museen in Heilbronn and the Art Center in Berlin Friedrischstrasse (Germany); the Van Gogh Foundation in Arles (France) or the PMMK Museum vor Moderne Kunst in Oostende (Belgium). The Riera i Aragó, Aiguaforts exhibition, a selection of more than 60 etchings, was exhibited in 2012 at the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes in various European cities. Among the best-known public works are: Buried Submarine, Hiroshima Gardens, Barcelona; Low relief, La Rambla; Municipal Building, Barcelona; Large soft submarine, Santander; Great plane with yellow, Figueres; Tired plane, Merignac (France); Najio Plane, Nishinomiya (Japan); Bas-relief of the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona; Ramon Llull bas-relief, Blanquerna Faculty of Communication Sciences, Barcelona; Arals, Mesen (Belgium) and Arals Turf, Roosendaal (The Netherlands).

Author：Conxita Oliver (Spain, b. 1957)
Conxita Oliver is a famous Spanish art historian and curator.