El 7 de Septiembre se inaugura "La puerta de Marfil" exposición conjunta de Nagore Amenabarro y Fernando Villena en la sala de Juntas Generales de Bizkaia.
7.12.15
Joanna Kidney
The other day, organizing my wetsuits, the smell of
the neoprene reminded me about Ireland and the time that I spent in County Mayo
this year. It is not that Ireland smells like neoprene at all, but my memories
about the light, landscape and people that I met there are linked to the
experience that I had and surfing was part of it too.
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| Views from Ballinglen Arts Foundation. |
Anyway, art as an experience and a way of
understanding what surrounds me is something that I share with Joanna Kidney,
an Irish artist that I met at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation.
During all the time that we shared at the residency,
we visited each other´s studio frequently and maintained over the weeks a
conversation about each other´s process and work.
With a study of complexity evolving from simplicity,
process and drawing as backbone of Joanna´s work, once you get into her studio
you will be immersed in a universe of related series or families of work.
Using different techniques such as drawing,
monoprints, encaustic painting or groups of founded objects, natural and manmade,
she articulates a body of work where you can find connections with natural,
physical and sociological structures that are surrounding us. In certain way
she traces a path that allows us to understand that microscopic or macroscopic
scale are intimately related and that nature and humanity tend to repeat structures.
Her way of working has some room for unexpected things that might happen in the
creative process and become part of her practice.
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Naveander, Installation view, RHA Atrium, Dublin, 2012-2013,
Felt, wool, hemp and thread,
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Naveander (detail), RHA Atrium, Dublin, 2012-2013,
Felt, wool, hemp and thread,
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Ordered Complexities 3, 2013,
monotypes on paper,
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| Plot VI, 2015, encaustic on panel, 60cm x 60cm |
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| It put its face up to my face so I could see XV, 2015, encaustic on panel, 30cm x 30cm |
Recently Joanna had a solo show at the Mermaid Arts
Centre, Bray, County Wicklow, where she exhibited part of the work done during
her residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation.
As part of the exhibition there was an installation that gave it´s name to the exhibition: “Wunderkammer”.
Here you are a link to the tv program Wicklow Matters (45) where you will be able to see an interview with Joanna and her exhibition:
For further information about Joanna Kidney .
17.8.15
Fernando Villena inauguración exposición en Addaya Centre D'art Contemporani. Island Life: Work in progress.
Inauguración Island Life: Work in progress.
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| Entrevista realizada por IB3 durante la inauguración. |
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| IB3 entrevistando a Tomeu Simonet. |
6.8.15
Fernando Villena. Exposición en Addaya Centre D'art Contemporani. Island Life: Work in progress.
Island life es una línea de trabajo e investigación, que se entrecruza, enlaza y coexiste en el tiempo con otras como "Una mirada a la fragua de Vulcano", "Extreme conditions, extreme solutions", etc..
La luz, formas orgánicas, tanto vegetales como geológicas, así como las experiencias vividas en Mallorca, Puerto Rico e Irlanda a lo largo de los tres últimos años son el marco en el que se centra la presente muestra. El nombre del proyecto, además, surge del título de un álbum del grupo latino "Yerba Buena", el cual ha formado parte de mi banda sonora en estos últimos años.
En la exposición podemos ver una selección obra pictórica y fotográfica realizada en Addaya en 2013, Área: lugar de proyectos, Puerto Rico 2014 y en Ballinglen Arts Foundation, 2015, así como una reflexión sobre esas experiencias.
Del 7 de Agosto al 24 de Octubre 2015.
11.5.15
Residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle, County Mayo, Ireland.
A month an a half has passed away since I came back from Ireland and my memories and feelings about County Mayo and Ballycastle are fresh.
It was my second time at the Emerald Island, but it has been a completely different experience. Back in 1999 my parents, my brother and I went to visit my sister to Dublin. From there we did a tour trough the island trying to visit as much as we could within a week.
Traveling and interacting with different places, scenarios, people and cultures around the globe has become part of my artistic process. This time, thanks to the Ballinglen Arts Fellowship I have been able to stay for a month and a half, painting and taking photographs, in Ballycastle, County Mayo and surroundings. Such a nice experience, once I got there the time seems to pass slowlyer or maybe it´s that certain things don´t matter anymore, giving you a completely different perspective of time, it wasn´t anymore about minutes and hours, time was related to sunlight, tides, rain and wind.
During the residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation I shared all this experiences with Joana Kidney, Joseph Ostraff, who were artists in residency at the same time, and their families. Obviously the staff of the foundation was a plus in this experience, they have created a warm atmosphere that allows you to be focused in your work from the begining.
On the other hand Joseph and Nuala Clarke, an Irish artist who collaborates with the foundation, were doing workshops with the surrounding schools from County Mayo. As part of those workshops they came to visit us to the studios in order to know our work and being able to speak with us about it. I was free to choose if they were allowed to come into the studio, I had my doubts about it at the beginning, but it ended being a good experience for me and I hope that for them too.
Now I´m whiling to expose my nieces to art.
I still remember when I was a kid going with my aunt to the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao an how the light came trough the staircase steps.
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It was my second time at the Emerald Island, but it has been a completely different experience. Back in 1999 my parents, my brother and I went to visit my sister to Dublin. From there we did a tour trough the island trying to visit as much as we could within a week.
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Killala´s Harbour. |
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Moyne Friary, near Killala, Co. Mayo. |
Traveling and interacting with different places, scenarios, people and cultures around the globe has become part of my artistic process. This time, thanks to the Ballinglen Arts Fellowship I have been able to stay for a month and a half, painting and taking photographs, in Ballycastle, County Mayo and surroundings. Such a nice experience, once I got there the time seems to pass slowlyer or maybe it´s that certain things don´t matter anymore, giving you a completely different perspective of time, it wasn´t anymore about minutes and hours, time was related to sunlight, tides, rain and wind.
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Ballinglen Arts Foundation. |
During the residency at Ballinglen Arts Foundation I shared all this experiences with Joana Kidney, Joseph Ostraff, who were artists in residency at the same time, and their families. Obviously the staff of the foundation was a plus in this experience, they have created a warm atmosphere that allows you to be focused in your work from the begining.
 |
| Joseph Ostraff, Joanna Kidney and Fernando Villena Photograph courtesy of Nathan Somers. |
On the other hand Joseph and Nuala Clarke, an Irish artist who collaborates with the foundation, were doing workshops with the surrounding schools from County Mayo. As part of those workshops they came to visit us to the studios in order to know our work and being able to speak with us about it. I was free to choose if they were allowed to come into the studio, I had my doubts about it at the beginning, but it ended being a good experience for me and I hope that for them too.
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Nuala Clarke and Melinda Ostraff at the printmaking studio. |
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| Sometimes they asked completely unexpected things and I was wondering if I understood the question properly... |
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| and sometimes my answer was as funny as their questions. |
Now I´m whiling to expose my nieces to art.
I still remember when I was a kid going with my aunt to the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao an how the light came trough the staircase steps.
29.10.14
Fernando Villena. Exposición en Torre de Ariz. Exhibition at Torre de Ariz. 2014
http://issuu.com/fernandovillena/docs/fernando_villena_expo_torre_de_ariz/1
13.8.14
Fernando Villena. Exposición en Centro Cultural Estación Indianilla. Mexico D.F. 2014.
CAMINANDO HACIA LA EXPERIENCIA EN EL ARTE
Fernando Villena es un artista que desde
hace ya unos años, encontró en los viajes, la manera de relacionarse con el
mundo y en particular, con la naturaleza. En este proceso, el contraste de
vivir entre las grandes ciudades y el campo, le ha provisto un marco idóneo
para integrarse en entornos específicos y percibirlos en toda su dimensión
estética.
Lejos
de entregarnos un simple registro de esas vivencias, las fotografías de Villena
exhiben la interrelación entre los organismos vivos y su medio, integrando en
esas imágenes, desde lo más cotidiano a lo más extraordinario bajo una codificación específica: la que sólo
puede ser producto de una experiencia sensible.
No
resultándole suficiente este modo de relación, el artista se aventura a
reorganizar estas experiencias bajo un segundo contexto: la pintura. Su
entendimiento orgánico del mundo, le facilita hacer una síntesis cromática en
el lienzo que provoca el experimentar –de nueva cuenta aunque de modo distinto-
muchas de las vivencias que se atestiguan en la fotografía. La configuración
espacial de su pintura, generalmente compuesta por característicos doseles que
se sobreponen, deja vislumbrar al fondo un plano mayor de color sugiriendo así,
dimensiones espaciales sutiles como las que se aprecian en la naturaleza.
En
otras ocasiones, Villena opta por llevar este entendimiento a un tercer plano:
la fotografía manipulada digitalmente. Mediante este proceso, las imágenes que
genera, aunque nos remiten al mundo orgánico, parecen surgir específicamente de una dimensión
microscópica, denotando sin embargo, con gran fuerza lo esencial de la vida: la
inmanencia.
Lugares
como China, Francia, Irlanda, Puerto Rico, Estados Unidos y ahora México, han
forjado la experiencia humana y vivencial de Fernando Villena, quien ha elegido
caminar el mundo para aprehenderlo mediante prácticas artísticas dotadas de un
ritmo interior.
Jeannette Betancourt.
( Artista visual, curadora y museógrafa residente en la Ciudad de México.)
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Isaac Masri, Jeannette Betancourt y Fernando Villena. |
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