Marlborough Gallery are pleased to announce the New York debut of Alejandro Corujeira, a painter who resides in Madrid and has exhibited widely both in Spain and internationally. Characterized by elliptical forms, sinuous lines that navigate the surface, and layers of transparency, Corujeira’s paintings are beautifully meditative works that invite close inspection. A past resident of the Josef and Annie Albers Foundation, Corujeira has work in the collections of Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid and the Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern, Valencia, which held a solo exhibition of his work in 2006.
Alejandro Corujeira, “Murmullo de mundo”, 2009. Acrylic on canvas, 160 x 180 cm. NON 49 717. ©Alejandro Corujeira, Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York.
Corujeira’s Chelsea exhibition will include twenty paintings, most acrylic on canvas, and nine small-format drawings. Frequently Corujeira incorporates graphite and colored pencil in his paintings, layering pale blues, greens and earth tones that seem to pulse with life. One suite of nine small format drawings, entitled Album de los sueños (Suite of Dreams), 2009, comprises the works on paper. Un jardín para agnes (A Garden for Agnes), 2009, a suite of nine works in small format (each acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil and graphite on canvas, 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 in., 23.5 x 18.5 cm) is dedicated to Agnes Martin, an artist of particular significance for Corujeira.
According to him, the works in this suite are in a sense the origin of the exhibition, where he began to develop, for the first time, particular forms associated with the organic and vegetable world. This suite also situates him within a certain strain of the abstract tradition, where one can see affinities with Minimalism. Corujeira, in a conversation with noted scholar Kevin Power featured in the exhibition catalogue, remarks “… I interpret my painting as a way of being in this world, a way of establishing mechanisms to comprehend reality, rather than painting as a carrier of ideas.”
In the painting El comienzo (The Beginning), 2009 (acrylic, pencil and graphite on canvas, 78 3/4 x 98 3/8 in., 200 x 250 cm), his most recent work in this exhibition, the different approaches and discoveries from these small format works find their resolution and come together. As Corujeira describes it, “In this painting there is a sinuous plane, organic in nature, which is left suspended over the surface; with the colored lines, energies of tinted light, causing it to palpitate permanently in a respiratory rhythm.” Melodías inventadas (Invented Melodies), 2009 (acrylic and graphite on canvas, 63 x 51 1/8 in, 160 x 130 cm), is invested with a similar vibrating energy. Here graphite circles move like cells over the surface of the painting, seemingly attempting to settle upon pale red and green lines and producing, in the artist’s words, a continual movement like an audible impression.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1961, Corujeira moved to Madrid in 1991 and has exhibited in Europe, South America and Madrid consistently. A winner of numerous awards, Corujeira has also had a number of significant solo exhibitions, including a large installation at Espacio Uno, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, in 2002. His work is found in many notable public collections, including the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Panamá; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Caracas Sofía Imber, Caracas; IVAM, Valencia and MNCARS, Madrid, as previously mentioned; Museo Municipal de Madrid, Madrid; Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de España, Madrid and the Academia Española de Historia, Arqueología y Bellas Artes, Rome, among others.
An illustrated catalogue with an interview by Kevin Power will be available at the time of the exhibition.
Open through December 19, 2009
Marlborough Chelsea / International Public Art Ltd., 545 West 25th St, New York, NY 10001 t. 212.463.8634 f. 212.463.9658 [email protected]
www.marlboroughgallery.com
