Ester Partegàs

The Passerby

Madrid
Mar 25 - May 20, 2017
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"For me, these typically over-looked materials serve as clues to a shared social and affective reality”

NoguerasBlanchard is pleased to announce The Passerby, an exhibition of new works by Ester Partegàs (La Garriga, Barcelona, 1972). It comprises two bodies of work, The Passerby, an installation occupying the main gallery, and a series of airbrushed paintings titled Studies on Mysticism.

Similar to some of her previous projects, The Passerby (2017) recreates a common public space, in this case a street market that alludes to the generic, anonymous and ubiquitous landscapes we are so familiar with. The work itself consists of translucent polyurethane scrims that have been directly cast from the common polyethylene tarps used to protect and shelter people and goods. Hanging from steel structures that recreate the labyrinthine layout of a market, the viewer is obliged to move amongst the tarps, engaging with the myriad of lights and colors their creases and textures convey. In the words of the artist “the sculptures capture a meeting of the material with the absent body of the citizen, and stand for the remnants of encounters of people and goods coming together and separating. It is in these fleeting experiences where the communal becomes intertwined with the individual, and the political blends into the private body. For me, these typically over-looked materials serve as clues to a shared social and affective reality”.

Studies on Mysticism (2017) is a series of airbrushed works painted directly on the surface of flattened product wrappers, such as chewing gum or cookie boxes. On these, Partegàs reproduces the original product background graphics omitting any foreground registers – such as words or logos – with the purpose of revealing the transcendental metaphysical promise the products present.

For the current exhibition Partegàs’ keenly observes the minutiae of our surroundings, what George Perec coined “the infra-ordinary”, which has been an ongoing inquiry in her practice. Through a material transformation in one case, and the recuperation of hidden signs on another, Partegàs conveys a sense of light and space foreign to the hustle of everyday living. With these works, she points to a potential for the metaphysical and the divine to present themselves in the most overseen and ignored. She proposes a place where fiction and reality meet; a place where the material and immaterial might coexist.

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Installation

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

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Roberto Ruiz

Selected Works

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (2 Fluorescent Pink Planets)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

27.5 x 25.5 cm (10 2732 x 10 132 inches)

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (Blue Icicle)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

29.5 x 23.5 cm (11 58 x 9 14 inches)

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (Mountain Glowing Dark Skies)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

14 x 10 cm (5 12 x 3 1516 inches)

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (Green Rays White Sun)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

17.2 x 10.2 cm (6 2532 x 4 132 inches)

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (Vertical Yellow Sun Fried Egg)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

15.6 x 10 cm (6 18 x 3 1516 inches)

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (Orange and Black Waves)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

10 x 9.7 cm (3 1516 x 3 1316 inches)

Ester Partegàs
Studies on Mysticism (Glowing Planet)

2017

Acrylic on food packaging

15.6 x 9.6 cm (6 18 x 3 2532 inches)

Ester Partegàs
The Passerby

2017

Cast polyurethane resin and pigment

137.5 x 113 cm (54 18 x 44 12 inches)

Ester Partegàs
The Passerby

2017

Cast polyurethane resin and pigment

178 x 137 cm (70 332 x 53 1516 inches)

Ester Partegàs
The Passerby

2017

Cast polyurethane resin and pigment

166.5 x 152 cm (65 916 x 59 2732 inches)

Ester Partegàs
The Passerby

2017

Cast polyurethane resin and pigment

212 x 151 cm (83 1532 x 59 716 inches)

Ester Partegàs
The Passerby

2017

Cast polyurethane resin and pigment

150 x 106 cm (59 116 x 41 2332 inches)

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