Nubes (verde), is the sixth exhibition of Antonio Ballester Moreno in Maisterravalbuena along 15 years of collaboration and represents a significant moment of maturity and artistic precision in his career.
His practice is based on the expanded idea of the essential, from which fundamental links between human beings and the environment are emphasized, and where the primary and ideal environment is the landscape. In this sense, the relationship of art and nature, or between the human being and the primordial, is made present, not only through the protagonism of the figures represented, mainly in painting or sculpture, but also at the moment of thinking of the works as objects that belong to the everyday and habitable.
By using jute, ceramics, or woven wool, and by applying artisanal languages, or those pertaining to functional design, to disciplines such as painting or sculpture, Ballester Moreno breaks with the hierarchization of artistic materials, establishing a proposal that on the one hand vindicates traditional media, and on the other rectifies the idea of art belonging to a “pure” sphere.
In the case of Flores and Flores (amarillo), two textile paintings from his most recent series, the integration (material and conceptual) between art, nature, and life, happens at the time that there are no previous independent components, such as frame, support, and painting, but rather the image is constructed -literally woven- directly with the wool. These two works are conceived as paintings, they are presented as paintings and are the result of a process of pictorial reflection.
Ballester Moreno creates a body of work where the cleanliness of geometry, the organic and defined lines, the balanced composition, and the use of raw materials, as a whole, give the everyday, the status of art, which within the exhibition, democratizes the space in favor of a common and shared experience.
Antonio Ballester Moreno (1977) lives and works in Madrid. He participated and was co-curator in Afinidades Afectivas, the 33rd Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil, (2018), whose general curator was Gabriel Pérez Barreiro. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid, Spain); La Casa Encendida, (Madrid, Spain); MUSAC (León, Spain); Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Jalisco, Mexico); or Joeng Song Art Center (Seoul, South Korea), among others.
Likewise, his work has been included in group exhibitions in spaces such as the Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Madrid, Spain); MUSAC (León, Spain); Grimmuseum (Berlin, Germany); or The Hole (New York, USA), to mention a few.
Antonio Ballester Moreno (1977) vive y trabaja en Madrid. Participó y fue co-comisario en Afinidades Afectivas, la 33 Bienal de São Paulo, Brasil, (2018), cuyo comisario general fue Gabriel Pérez Barreiro. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en el Museo Patio Herreriano (Valladolid, España); La Casa Encendida, (Madrid, España); MUSAC (León, España); Museo de Arte de Zapopan (Jalisco, México); o Joeng Song Art Center (Seúl, Corea del Sur), entre otras.
Igualmente, su obra ha sido incluida en muestras colectivas en espacios como el Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Madrid, España); MUSAC (León, España); Grimmuseum (Berlín, Alemania); o The Hole (Nueva York, EE.UU), por mencionar algunas.
Su obra está presente en colecciones de instituciones, tanto públicas como privadas, tales como el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, España); Colección Banco de España (Madrid, España); Pérez Museum (Miami, FL, EE.UU); Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Madrid, España); MUSAC (León, España); Colección DKV (Madrid, España); Colección Olor Visual (Barcelona, España); Olbricht Collection (Berlín, Alemania); Reydan Weiss Collection, (Essen, Alemania); Jerry Speyer Collection (Nueva York, EE.UU), entre otras.
His work is present in the collections of both public and private institutions, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain); Banco de España Collection (Madrid, Spain); Pérez Museum (Miami, FL, USA); Centro de Arte Dos de la Plata (Madrid, Spain); Centro de Arte Dos de la Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain); Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain); Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain); Colección Banco de España (Madrid, Spain); Pérez Museum (Miami, FL, USA). His work is present in the collections of public and private institutions, such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain); Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Madrid, Spain); MUSAC (León, Spain); DKV Collection (Madrid, Spain); Olor Visual Collection (Barcelona, Spain); Olbricht Collection (Berlin, Germany); Reydan Weiss Collection (Essen, Germany); Jerry Speyer Collection (New York, USA), among others.
The idea of the original as a starting platform and as a result, is expressed through a language that is structured -materially, formally and conceptually-, by a dialectic triad (nature – art – experience) where the synthesis is the precise transmission of the integrated experience through the works of art. To say precision and synthesis is to imply the presence of balance/ tension/ contrast, between the process of abstraction and the identifiable representation of the landscape; between the innocence of the forms, the choice of primary colors, and the complexity and risk in the artistic proposal. What is really radical and courageous in the work of Ballester Moreno, is to produce a body of work where the cleanliness of the geometry, the organic and defined lines, the balanced composition and the use of raw materials, together, give the everyday and natural, the status of art, which within the exhibition, democratizes the space in favor of a common experience, familiar and stripped of pre-established ideas, where the shared feeling of originality, is indeed a tool for freedom.
