MEMORY SEDIMENTS

Javier Infantes, artist born in Estepona, presents his first solo exhibition at Stoa. With an excellent academic education, his devotion to art, his professionalism and his consistency are praiseworthy. He has been working with the gallery since its beginning, being a symbol of the abstraction in the curated projects in which he has been included. Most of his work belongs to the Abstract Expressionism, art movement born in the United States, and the reason why New York City is the epicenter of the development of his work.

“Sediments of Memory” is a further step in the research the artist has been involved in for quite some time. Archaeologist of the sediments of memory, he investigates memory stratum by stratum, becoming an interpreter of the melody composed by our emotions and feelings. Therefore, we have before us an “excavation diary” in which we see, not only the researcher’s notes, but also, and much more important, his findings. As Picasso used to say, “searching means nothing in painting. Everything consists in finding”.

He works in a whole range of techniques with the purpose of covering the mnesic capabilities, highlighting outstandingly the digital work. Five pieces, created some time ago, in large sizes, with vibrant colours and extraordinary visual impact. The shapes, easily recognizable, are forms of the collective unconscious and symbols of universal languages. These are images that, as the other works, do not only have the aim of describing the reality, but also the intention of interpreting it in a conceptual way.

Perhaps colour is the first characteristic that we are impressed by on a first look. Rothko used to say that the colours in his paintings were compressed gases ready to explode. However, Javier’s colours freely float on the viscosity of the resin or become a spongy matter when he uses a foamy mean. Colours and textures are the result of chance (dripping), result of a conscious experimentation or of a deep meditation, no matter which one. What it is clear is that all of them are works that reflect emotional states.

Javier is a classic artist and, as Velázquez, a master of masters, that managed to capture the air with his brush strokes and led the aerial perspective to a higher level, Javier also seeks the air on his resin works, where the resin becomes atmosphere, as well as a liquid container and an iconic storage of the visual perception, declaring that: “The only constant is change. My wish is to metaphorically introduce our memories in a viscous and transparent medium or building them with foam, so that, they remain intact and unchangeable”. Therefore, as a true informalist artist, materials adjusts to the concept : resin , foam, acrylic, resin dye , metallic paint , spray paint , glitter in several colours … converted in master pieces ranging from two-dimensional works to low relief paintings, from the polished surfaces to the topographic pieces, from a square shape to a rectangular one or to a rounded format.

This exhibition is an invitation to go deeper into the skin of each piece trying to penetrate into the neuronal galactic nets of an issue as close to human beings as our memory is. So, as the artist says: “My work is focused on the concept of memory and its power to shape ourselves, to build our identities as human beings. We are our memories. Memories make us the way we are, they make us who we are. To remember is to live again…”

See Opening of “Sediments of Memory”

See Catalogue “Sediments of Memory”