ALBERT PINYA
The time is now!

May 29th 2021/September 30th 2021
Opening: Saturday May 29th 2021 @10.30AM

The time is now! is the title of Albert Pinya’s solo exhibition. A solo show with a unique character, in which the Majorcan artist – already known throughout the country – presents himself in a truly complete key with: papers, paintings and unpublished ceramics.

After the exhibition Wormhole – in collaboration with Laurina Paperina, curated by Rossella Farinotti – the artist finds in his line the distinctive sign that has made it distinguishable over the years: the black outline, simple but dynamic, the imaginary scenes full of figures and vibrant colour.

In the production of The time is now! We first encounter the 50×35 cm medium format papers – made during the first lock down – which are shown with a flat background on which the instinctive gesture draws recognizable silhouettes such as Mafalda, some protagonists of South Park, Snoopy, Doraemon. Characters inspired by cartoons, films, TV series of his times and/or sources derived from his travels. And while we recognize some heroes, here and there, we read writings such as “For the love of God”, “Kill the Master”, “Ciao bella”, “Don’t worry”, innate and almost primitive phrases.

Then we find the canvases, which in turn are divided into three series. The first – which includes medium format works: Bacteria Set, Veni Vidi, Vinci and Party Time!!! – has a positive and proactive connotation in relation to the period we are experiencing. The second, on the other hand, – consisting of three large 170×170 cm artworks, which includes: Social distancing, New Normal Lifestyle, Facemask Experience – describes this last year and a half in a few words and repeated signs. Albert Pinya, through his gesture, summarizes, and at the same time analyzes, the most recent pandemic situation. The pop, cheerful and cheeky colours deceive and conceal a heavier and more suffocating meaning. The third, to which Free facemask and Perhaps belong deceive two small canvases of 30×30 cm – makes us reflect on the future, on a perhaps, which contains uncertainties and hope. Painting thus assumes a function and a role of social chronicler and Albert Pinya is today, as in Romanticism Gericault or Delacroix, a perfect correspondent of the present.

Finally, as introduced in the preamble, it is not the paintings that invade the space, but the precious nucleus of ceramics made with Joan Pere Català-Roig, a ceramist from Portol, a small village in the Majorcan hinterland. Here, enclosed in a room, two years of research and work. Joan Pere Català-Roig and Albert Pinya together – for the first time – for a collaboration that is an example of nobility. The study of materials, the experimentation of form and the expectation of the result confirming how tradition and future can be so close. Albert Pinya’s graphic signs – eyes and mouths, Ufo, Joker, and other profiles – are placed on the ceramic, demonstrating how tradition and pop culture come together harmoniously. The production method and philosophy focus on the Artigas and Mirò model in which teamwork and joint decisions are the soul of the modus operandi. There is no personality imposed on the other. Ancestral and telluric merge.

The time is now!

This post is also available in: Italian