JOSÉ RAMÓN SIERRA. ZIGZAG

Opening: May 5, at 20:00 h.
Dates: May 6 – August 23, 2015
Spaces: South Cloister
Curator: Víctor Pérez Escolano
Exhibition Session: 25th Anniversary

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the CAAC is pleased to present the first retrospective dedicated to the person responsible for renovating the main area of the museum’s present-day home. José Ramón Sierra (Olivares, 1945) is a uniquely gifted individual who has managed to make his architectural profession a part of his larger identity as a well-rounded visual artist. Draughtsman, painter, sculptor, designer, author and teacher—he has left no creative stone unturned.

If pressed to identify the most important link in the chain of his ideas, forged over the years, it would have to be Marcel Duchamp. The fascinating ability to see something new in an existing reality is the cornerstone of his interpretative virtuosity. This is true of his visual artwork, all of his architectural projects, his analyses of the city and housing, and even his approach to teaching, in which students and professor form an amalgam.

Sierra is a rare breed that some might say harks back to earlier times, to the Renaissance, Baroque and the early avant-garde movements, all of which are springs that have undeniably watered his fertile mind; however, his personality can best be described as that of an artist of vibrant, changing times and a context where local values have imploded upon impact with an intense world. The long string of his creative milestones forms a convoluted spiral, which in this show is illustrated as a zigzag line.

While still a student, he won a prize from Galería La Pasarela in Seville that identified him as one of the pillars of the new abstraction, open to the transformations that were taking place around the world in the 1960s. Since then, he has never travelled in a straight line. His journey has been marked by sudden surges of renewal, some of which are recognizable in the series displayed in this show. The articulation of these spikes provided in the exhibition is the only way that viewers can perceive and understand the bigger picture of José Ramón Sierra's zigzag career.

Víctor Pérez-Escolano

 

ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION

[Exhibitions Labels]

[Press Dossier]

[High Resolution Images]

[Photo Album on Flickr]