Ignacio Uriarte
‘When I quit my last administrative job in order to work as a full-time artist, I realized that the new- gained freedom implied a great deal of responsibility. Under no circumstance did I want to abuse art for the sake of a personal liberation, which would have turned me into a marginal cliché-artist. On the contrary, I decided to stay in my own personal “petit-bourgeois” reality in order to deal with it from the inside, using the expertise acquired over the years. That is why I have not stopped using the same tools and methods, similar to those of any office employee, working in a routine way and with routine as my major thematic focus.
My starting point is the little creative moments within office-routines, which mostly have a ridiculously small ‘artistic’ aspect to them. Examples: When we scribble during a phone conversation (Aparición/Desaparación, 2013) or when we fold a sheet of paper before putting it into an envelope (Fluctuating Folds, 2012) we are performing small painterly and sculptural gestures. The systematic repetition of these actions according to predefined rules turns them into meta-routines, into re-enactments of the Sisyphus myth. The only difference is that the resulting pieces register in detail the methodical and repetitive labor that was necessary for their creation. This way, the routine survives, enabling the audience to read and mentally recreate it.
Esthetically, my work shows clear references to the conceptual and minimal art of the 60s and 70s. In those years the dematerialization of the art object in the art world and the substitution of products by services in the business world occurred almost simultaneously. Maybe that is why the esthetics also started to look alike, e.g. in the chromatic limitation or in the formal simplicity, which would signalize how both, commercial products and art objects now would be generated in a (blank) mind. We could even speak of a mutual fetichization which led for instance to the use of neon light and the archive as artistic media and to the preferred use of minimalist art as decoration in offices.’ – Ignacio Uriarte
Selected works
Madrid Windows
2019
Permanent marker on paper
each: 55 × 40 cm ( × 15 3⁄4 inches)
Negative Light Matrix (4 x 4)
2019
Pigmented ink on paper
each: 33.5 × 46 cm ( × 18 1⁄8 inches)
Diagonaler Linealstrichstrukturverlauf (4 x 4)
2019
Permanent marker on paper
each: 33.5 × 46 cm ( × 18 1⁄8 inches)
Dos rectángulos y un círculo
2018
Pigmented ink on paper
each: 65.4 × 50 cm ( × 19 11⁄16 inches)
Black Scribble Moon
2019
Pigmented ink on paper
88 × 64.6 cm (34 21⁄32 × 25 7⁄16 inches)
Breiter Dreiklang
2019
Typewriter on paper
each: 108 × 45 × 3 cm ( × 17 23⁄32 × 1 3⁄16 inches)
Cross Gradation
2018
Permanent marker on paper
143.3 × 118.3 × 3 cm (56 13⁄32 × 46 9⁄16 × 1 3⁄16 inches)
Tres triángulos
2018
Pigmented ink on paper
90.3 × 143.4 cm (35 9⁄16 × 56 15⁄32 inches)
Two light beams (Red and Green)
2017
Pigmented ink on paper
65.3 × 47.4 × 4 cm (25 23⁄32 × 18 21⁄32 × 1 9⁄16 inches)
Centrifugal amorphous matrix
2016
Pigmented ink on paper
119 × 88 × 5.5 cm (46 27⁄32 × 34 21⁄32 × 2 5⁄32 inches)
Cuatro por tres
2015
Pen on paper
79.5 × 59.5 × 4 cm (31 5⁄16 × 23 7⁄16 × 1 9⁄16 inches)
Three, (Tres)
2015
Wrinkled papers
21 × 105 × 131.1 cm (8 9⁄32 × 41 11⁄32 × 51 5⁄8 inches)
Fluctuating Folds
2012
Paper installation
Dimensions variable
Diagonal Triangles (from the series Monochromes without Ink)
2014
Empty pen on cotton paper
each: 63.3 × 48.2 cm ( × 18 31⁄32 inches)
Document Proof Monochromes
2012
Ink on paper
each: 48 × 33 × 3 cm ( × 13 × 1 3⁄16 inches)
Sequential inclination 1
2012
Document proof pen and pencil on paper
92 × 126 × 4 cm (36 7⁄32 × 49 5⁄8 × 1 9⁄16 inches)
Strong Upper and Downer (3 x A2)
2012
Typewriter ink on paper
66.3 × 133.2 × 4 cm (26 3⁄32 × 52 7⁄16 × 1 9⁄16 inches)
Nine Crosses
2012
Pen on paper
each: 59.4 × 42 cm ( × 16 17⁄32 inches)
My Record Collection
2011
Pen on paper
each: 37.5 × 37.5 × 2 cm ( × 14 3⁄4 × 25⁄32 inches)
Rubber Band Carpet
2011
Rubber bands
Dimensions variable
Installation
Verwaltungstakte
2019
Kunstmuseum Reutlingen Konkret
Den Zufall ordnen
2020
Kaiser Wilhelm Museum
Krefeld
210 x 297 cm
2019
Kunstraum Lakeside
Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
x, y, z
2018
Museo ABC
Madrid
FORMASOBREFONDO
2017
Proyectos Monclova
Mexico City
Achtung Kulturgut
2016
Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders
Bergisch Gladbach
EchtZeit
2016
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Bonn
Cut, Folded, Pressed & Other Actions
2016
David Zwirner
New York
Drawing – The bottom line
2015
S.M.A.K. Ghent
Three
2015
Mies van der Rohe Foundation
Barcelona
Listening to the Lines
2015
Maison Hermès
Tokyo
Especies de Espacio
2015
MACBA
Barcelona
Drawing Now
2015
Albertina Museum
Vienna
Unos y ceros
2014
Marco Vigo
Vigo
Line of Work
2013
The Drawing Center
New York
Analogital
2013
UMOCA - Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
Salt Lake City
Works
2012
La Panera
Lleida
Drawing Time
2010
Ensemble Poirel
Nancy
Atasco de papel
2008
Casa Encendida
Madrid
News
Exhibitions
Campos de texto
MadridApr 17 - Jun 05, 2021
The works in Campos de texto – all of which oscillate somewhere between drawing and writing – respond to how humans structure and organise space, and to the drifts that occur within these processes.
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Tipología de dibujo escultórico
MadridJan 21 - Mar 18, 2017
Each of the works presented constitutes a typology – of forms, gestures, fillings / voids, lines, accidents, inclinations and shadows.
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Meditaremos em silêncio a diferença entre nós
MadridNov 14, 2015 - Jan 09, 2016
Curated by Tiago de Abreu Pinto
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Hard Facts
MadridNov 16, 2013 - Jan 18, 2014
“the visual effects in his works are complex, but the language is plain: lines, colours and clean surfaces” – Joanna Kleinberg
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The History of the Typewriter Recited by Michael Winslow
BarcelonaJan 21 - Mar 20, 2010
Known as the “Man of 10,000 Sound Effects” for his ability to make realistic sound impersonations using only his voice and mostly remembered for his role in the Police Academy movies, Winslow re-enacts the clickety-clack of typing machines from the 1870s to the 1980s in a homage to “a sound which is part of the soundtrack of our lives”.
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About lines and circles
BarcelonaNov 29, 2007 - Jan 19, 2008
NoguerasBlanchard is proud to present the first exhibition in the gallery of Ignacio Uriarte (1972, Krefeld, Germany).
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