Altered States. This exhibition brings together large and small works which transcend the categories of painting, sculpture, and drawing as they blend all media, employing assemblage-like manner and installation.
Provocative recent works by Jordi Alcaraz, the celebrated contemporary artist
from Spain, will be presented in a major exhibition at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles. The
exhibition, Jordi Alcaraz: Altered States, will open on October 12 with a reception for the artist
who will be in attendance. The exhibition will extend through December 21.
This much anticipated museum-scale exhibition brings together large and small works which
transcend the categories of painting, sculpture, and drawing as they blend all media, employing
assemblage-like manner and installation. Conceptually, Alcaraz extends notions of perspective
beyond the realms of the physically-seen.
Previously, Alcaraz’s first U.S. solo exhibition presented at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in 2010 was
cited by critics as one of Southern California’s 10 best exhibitions of that year. The occasion also
marked the publication of a comprehensive book, “Jordi Alcaraz Dibuixos,” with texts by the
leading Spanish critic, Mariano Navarro, and the renowned American critic and scholar, Peter Selz,
co-published with galleries in Germany, Italy and Spain, along with Jack Rutberg Fine Arts. Since
that time, Alcaraz’s works continue to elicit international critical attention.
In this current exhibition, Jordi Alcaraz: Altered States, the artist furthers his explorations and
near-obsessive ruminations on the limits of interior/exterior concepts, reality and evocation,
presence versus absence, volume and void - the rational and the poetic. Even boundaries created
by frames enclosing his paintings and drawings are altered in extraordinary ways, calling into
question these distinctions. The same applies to his sculptures. Alcaraz opens surprising realms
through the use of bending, tearing and puncturing materials in unpredictable ways. To quote the
artist, “The surface of the works have a plastic behavior similar to the surface of water...it can be
traversed, altered, shocked...in which the absence is more important than the evidence; the
absence of almost everything, the role of disappearance of the work, the permanence of the
action.”
When writing for a recent museum exhibition catalogue, the eminent critic, Peter Selz, wrote “Jordi
Alcaraz takes the physical space, objects and ideas and projects them into new dimensions. He is
a visual alchemist whose sensibilities expand a profound legacy...Alcaraz’s pieces have magic
without resorting to tricks. It is art of the unexpected and surprise. This artist works with
contradiction and enigmas...most of all, Alcaraz conflates the interior and exterior of matter and
space, and works simultaneously with past and future.”
Born in 1963 in Calella, near Barcelona, Alcaraz is logically placed among his Catalonian artist
antecedents. He transcends the minimal spaces of Miro and the surreal other-worldly landscapes
of Dali, and whereas Antoni Tapies created astounding walls and doors - marked and eroded -
evidencing both the surreal and the real, Alcaraz extends those notions into realms uniquely his
own. His work engages the viewer in unexpected ways, as the leading Spanish critic, Mariano
Navarro has observed: “Alcaraz’s works alert us not only to our assessment of things visible and
invisible and their paradoxes, but also allude to sensations we may have never experienced before
yet seem familiar, as though they are part of our heritage...”
The trajectory of Alcaraz’s recognition has been particularly impressive in recent years. His works
have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Belgium, Germany, Italy,
Canada, Switzerland, and Spain in galleries and museums, and featured in international art fairs
throughout the U.S. and Europe. Currently, his work is included in “Nuage” at the Musée Reattu de
Arles, France. His works are represented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles.
Jordi Alcaraz: Altered States opens October 12 and extends through December 21, 2013 at Jack
Rutberg Fine Arts, located at 357 N. La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. Gallery hours are Tuesday
through Friday 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., and Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Special related events
will be announced via email.
Opening Reception, October 12, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Jack Rutberg Fine Arts
357 N. La Brea Avenue Los Angeles