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20/9/2005

Julia Warr

Galeria Tomas March, Valencia

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Galería Tomás March is presenting the work of the painter Julia Warr for the very first time in Spain. Born in Fremont, California in 1959, Warr was an international model (Hermès, Armani, Comme des garçons, and John Galliano), and a TV producer for BBC Channel Four before studying fine arts at Goldsmith College in London from 1995 to 1999. Her work has since been seen in major European galleries like Michael Janssen in Cologne, Studio Massimo de Carlo in Milan, Vous êtes ici in Amsterdam, the Crown Gallery in Brussels and Program in London.

Her slick acrylic works are built using a grid system. In fact, Warr's grid brings to mind the minimalist utopia of artists like Mondrian, as much as recalling blocks of Lego or ruled copybooks, while equally evoking the pixilation of digital photography. Remindful of classical portraits, the subjects are usually young women and men taken from magazines or snapshots in serene postures. All distinguishing features are reduced to the bare minimum yet there is enough going on for Julia Warr to communicate a broad expressive spectrum to the beholder.

First of all, she makes initial sketches on ruled paper before then blowing up the size, pouring acrylic paint over it, working the thickness within the rectangular boxes of an aluminium grid placed over a fibre sheet. During the process, the pigment can seep out from one square to the next. This element of controlled accidentality is central to her working process and the constant destabilization of the image leads to a feeling of an emotional threshold. This confrontation between the passiveness of the images and their expressiveness demands an active engagement from the viewer.

Galeria Tomas March
Aparisi y Guijarro, 7 - Valencia

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