Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo

About Lluis Barba Cantos

Social criticism and willful iconographic boundary crossing merge into new subversive forms in Lluís Barba’s epic collages. The Catalan artist takes the most significant works from the history of art and swamps them underneath… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Social criticism and willful iconographic boundary crossing merge into new subversive forms in Lluís Barba’s epic collages. The Catalan artist takes the most significant works from the history of art and swamps them underneath contemporary symbols, artworks, tourists, and celebrities. Like an invasion, these visitors charge upon the old masterpieces and convert them into scenes of a turbulent exhibition, positioning art and reception in an ambivalent relationship.


The artworks by the Barcelona based artists stem from conceptual thinking and demonstrate their own ironic and symbolic contextual language. Barcode tattoos stand for loss of identity, black and white the past, and color the present. Every detail in the fine-grained collages refers to something contemporary or traditional. The irony is primarily targeted at the commercialization of artworks and museums. His works mirror how we perceive art and what we perceive to be art in different places. But this mirror might also reflect the viewer, especially if they are so captured by Barba’s glamorously dramatized spectacle that the appropriated old masters become merely a stage. Or just maybe they read Barba’s works for what they are, art and collaged spectacle colluding against the art market’s “scene” culture.


Lluís Barba received his training at the Escola de Belles Arts de Barcelona. He is an internationally renowned artist with solo and group exhibitions in London, Brussels, New York, Miami, LA, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, and many other places around the world. His work has been included at the Venice Biennale and Havana Biennial in Cuba and is on display in museums such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Museu d'Art Contemporani in Barcelona.


Stephan Reisner

VITA

Born in Barcelona
Studied at Escola Superior de Disseny i d’Arts Llotja and at Massana School Art Center, Barcelona
Lives and works in Barcelona

Exhibitions

2020	Art Confinat, virtual exhibition, Fundació Bassat Mataró, Mataró, Spain
2019	Colección Bassat, Palacio de las Cortes de Castilla y León, Valladolid, Spain Royal Opera Arcade Gallery, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, UK Market Art+Design, The Bridgehampton Museum, New York, USA
2018	Grand Prix Fórmula 1, Le Méridien, DC Gallery, Montecarlo, Monaco Dean Project Gallery, Summer Exhibition, Miami, Florida, USA Showcase for Young Masters, Wimbledon HQ, Courtesy Cynthia Corbett, London, UK
2017	57th Venice Biennial, Collateral Event, Personal Structures, Palazzo Mora, Venice, Italy GGA Foundation, European Cultural Centre, Venice, Italy Colection Bassat, Art Contemporáneo, Centro Exposiciones Lienzo Norte Ávila, Spain Benefit of The Perry J. Cohen Foundation, Flying with the Stars, Miami, Florida, USA Art Kuwait, Sultan Gallery, Blue Nights, Kuwait City, Kuwait Fundación Cultural Providencia, Providencia, Chile Colección Al Límite, Sin límites, Fundación Telefónica, Santiago de Chile, Chile Galeria Antoni Pinyol, Reus Urban Art, Reus, Tarragona, Spain 25th Anniversary Galeria Antoni Pinyol, Reus, Tarragona, Spain
2016	LA Art Show, A New Focus, Los Angeles, California, USA 3rd Casablanca Biennale, Casablanca, Morocco Realisme Art Fair Amsterdam, Galeria Contrast, Amsterdam, Netherlands Signature Book artist Lluís Barba, Art by Contrast, Barcelona, Spain Casa Gracia, Garden of Earthy Delights, 500 Century El Bosco, Galeria Contrast, Barcelona, Spain Museo de Arte Costarricense, San José, Costa Rica MAD Antequera, Museo Arte Diputación, Maid in Spain, Málaga, Spain Sultan Gallery, Kuwait City, Kuwait Pop Up, Empire State Building, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, New York, USA Rarity Gallery, Spring exhibition, Mykonos, Greece Dean Project Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
2015	Travel in time, Foundació Museo Vila Casas, Barcelona, Spain Dean Project Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA Review, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait City, Kuwait Lluís Barba. Travellers in time, Site 109 Art Gallery, New York, USA Made in Spain: Periplo por el arte español de hoy, CAC Málaga, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo in Collaboration with Fondazione Benetton, Málaga/Trieste, Spain/Italy
2014	Sultan Gallery, Kuwait City, Kuwait Author's Book Signature, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Art Miami, Florida, USA Gallery artists, Dean Project Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA
2013	Lluís Barba Photographs, Baker Sponder Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA Project In Memory Guernica, Design mural, Related Group, Baltus House, Miami, Florida, USA Cloud 9, Sultan Gallery, Kuwait City, Kuwait Photographic Project LA, Wendy Fisher Collection, Los Angeles, California, USA Retrats, Galeria Sicart, Vilafranca Penedés, Barcelona, Spain La Vicaría. Homage to Fortuny, Galeria Antoni Pinyol, Reus, Tarragona, Spain Photographies, Ninoska Huerta Gallery, Biscayne art House, Miami, Florida, USA Composición VIII, Beneficent work T.J. Martell Foundation, New York, USA Artworks for the cure, The Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, California, USA Art Within Reach, C.A.M Galeri, Istanbul, Turkey The House of St Barnabas, House of Charity, London, UK Summer time show, C.A.M Galeri, Istambul, Turkey Galería Vértice, Oviedo, Spain Dean Project Gallery, Gallery artists, New York, USA Travellers in time, Baker Sponder Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA Galerie Massou, Galerie artists, Barbizon, France
2012	Self-portraits, Dean Project Gallery, New York, USA Young Masters, Lluís Barba Art Prize, Courtesy Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, UK Center for Visual Communication Miami, Photography, Galerie Bernd Lausberg, Florida, USA Art Palm Beach, Besharat Contemporary, Florida, USA Mediamuseum, Instituto Scrritura e Immagine, Pescara, Italy Biba Gallery, Palm Beach, Florida, USA What do you want to be when you grow up? Galeria Sicart, Vilafranca Penedès, Barcelona, Spain
2011	Travellers in time, Galerie Lausberg, Toronto, Canada LA Art Experience, San Marino Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA Contact, Photography Festival Toronto, Canada De Polaroid a Photoshop, Besharat Contemporary Art, Atlanta, USA Gallery artists, Dean Project Gallery, New York, USA
2010	The Holly, Old Truman Brewery, Courtesy Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, UK Exhibitionism, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London, UK

INTERVIEW

When did you become interested in art? How did it all begin?

I realized there were inequalities in society, related to race, economics, and class, which I felt the need to communicate through the medium I know best, art. I began to draft concepts such as:
Demystification - guns, atomic bombs, tanks, and uniformed military men with flowers eating ice cream.
Mass consumption - multinational brands.
Manipulation - political and religious Power.
Hunger – child exploitations and threats to poverty-stricken communities
I use bar codes in the form of tattoos to symbolize the loss of individual identity, homologation, conformity, and mass consumption.
I establish a parallelism between past and present.


How would you describe your work process?

My creative process is based on painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video, and digital computer graphics. I photograph people in my studio, as well as people on the street: tourists, homeless people... in contrast with the world of glamour: celebrities... and culture: contemporary artists, their objects and works, architects, collectors, writers, philosophers, thinkers, visionaries...
I decontextualize elements from one reality and position them in another reality.
I use implicit messages in my work, such as globalization and cultural immersion.
I think I provide viewers with and element of reflection, a subjective interpretation of art. Using the technical and conceptual diversity of various historical masterpieces, I have managed to articulate my personal style and convey my interests without deviating from the discourse.


Who inspires you?

In general, I draw inspiration from the grand masters of the last centuries; without them we would not be capable of creating the art that is produced today:
Rembrandt -he introduced chiaroscuro, which is extremely valuable in both photography and cinema.
Leonardo -he created the foundations for what we now refer to as multimedia artists; if he were alive today, he would certainly be working with new technologies.
Duchamp -his contribution was the contextual detachment of figures, turning them into purely conceptual and artistic objects.
Mondrian – he helped us to understand balance and structure through his theory of mass, volume, color, etc.


Which artists/works of art are you particularly impressed with at the moment?

Artists of the contemporary arts: Paul McCarthy, Maurizio Cattelan, Matthew-Barney, Warhol, Vanessa Beecroft, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, Bill Viola...
And from the past: Bosch, Brueghel, Leonardo da Vinci, Goya, Gustave Doré, Pierre Subleyras, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Hubert Robert, David Teniers, John Singer Sargent, Boilly...


What distinguishes a good work of art?

A work of art must have a subjective and distinctive view of the world around us, one that is as important to the artist as it is to the viewer. It must evoke discourse, as well as emotional, conceptual, and formal interest. I've always thought that if an artist has nothing to say or nothing to claim, it's best not to say anything.


What project are you working on at the moment?

I am in the process of reinterpreting Gustave Doré's engravings from The Divine Comedy.


What is the purpose of art?

I would be happy to see my work positively influencing society and encouraging people to reflect on many of the world’s problems.


Does art bring about happiness?

Of course. When I work, I enter my own world where the pleasure of creating and drafting new stories is all there is. If I could be reborn, I would like to be reborn as an artist.