Exhibitions
Xavier Grau: the impetus of painting
A look at a key decade of the artist's work through his close association with the Miguel Marcos Gallery.
The Miguel Marcos Gallery presents Xavier Grau, Paintings 1983–1994, an exhibition that brings together a careful selection of works created during one of the artist's most significant periods. This show is not only a journey through a key decade in the career of Xavier Grau (Barcelona 1951 – 2020), but also a celebration of the long and fruitful relationship between the artist and the Miguel Marcos Gallery.
Since 1983, the gallery has constantly accompanied Grau's artistic evolution, providing him with support through numerous exhibitions at its locations in Zaragoza, Madrid and Barcelona, as well as through participation in prominent institutional exhibitions, such as Xavier Grau, Paintings 1981–1996, at the Santa Mònica Arts Center in Barcelona (1997), curated by Enrique Juncosa, and Celebration of Painting, at the Veruela Monastery in Zaragoza (2008), curated by Juan Manuel Bonet.
Sense títol, Xavier Grau (1993)
Grau's painting is closely linked to the manifestations of the New York School, and in particular to Willem de Kooning or Philip Guston, offering a pictorial language that at first glance brings us closer to a direct and spontaneous work, without obstacles, articulating all spaces and volumes through gestures and a free and unbound chromaticism. The promoter of El Grup Trama —formed by himself, José Manuel Broto, Javier Rubio, Gonzalo Tena and the writer Federico Jiménez Losantos—, Xavier Grau is considered one of the main Spanish representatives of abstract expressionism. Technically, in this exhibition we can perceive the desire to delve deeper into the succession and amalgam of layers that characterize Grau's work, through superpositions built on transparencies, nuances and blurred glazes. This process generates the singular mystery of an apparent chaos and excess, which ends up giving rise to pictorial tensions of great intensity.
His work is part of prominent collections and public institutions such as the “la Caixa” Contemporary Art Collection (Barcelona), the MACBA —Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona—, the MNCARS —Museu Nacional Centre d'Art Reina Sofia (Madrid)—, or the Banc Sabadell Art Collection, among many others. In the current context, revisiting these paintings means reconnecting with a vibrant pictorial language, full of tension, color and expressive freedom. The exhibition highlights the validity of a work that defies the passage of time and preserves its formal and emotional power intact.
Terminal, Xavier Grau (1983)
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