J.Mª CADENA & R. MARAGALL

FROM THE GREY CEMENT

The work presented by Nuria Guinovart moves within a range of greys, a broad field rich in emotions, where white and black are mixed to obtain different shades similar to ashes.

It is possible that originally she has had some other artistic senses and was looking for the best way to express them, through a new-born personality. Then Nuria has begun to find herself with some materials that represent her in the best way: cement and tar, which would later help carry Nuria further to develop her artistic carrier.

We have mentioned the word “ash” and we like to insist on it, because it is much more than a word. As we understand, it is a concept that defines how Núria Guinovart in a key moment of her life as an artist, realized she must start all over again; in order to achieve it she needed to burn the past. Nuria needed to start with ignition from inside, but trying not to light a flame that somebody could see, come to interrupt the process she initiated on her own conviction – become a live ash, one that still has sparks of heat but seems quiet and still.

She applies all the sense to matter, a very unusual act among all the artists of her generation. Because she is young and strongly feels the need to get to be known, she has a tendency to overestimate the feelings with the way of how to express them. Is this a mistake? We don’t think so, because each art work aims at not making mistakes when it is projected onto a third party, on the contrary it needs to be convincing when feelings come first when they are still looking for the best ways to be expressed.

Lets recall that in literature a saga novel had great success for years, the one which created the expression that before ashes there was a tree. This expression aimed to communicate over a set of historical events; how Catalan society had evolved and how its protagonists had emerged along some profound changes. Well, in our point of view, the artist had done the same when she turned the past into dust like a phoenix bird, she took flight from what at first time had interested her and today it only remains as a reference.

Núria Guinovart is a great worker. She knows that you have to spend hours in front of each work and allow yourself to be delivered to what the matter and its support transmit, both so simple in appearence. She puts all her will in this task, because she has a purpose, a purpose to fulfill. And this purpose is finding an aesthetical dimension that leads to the definition of volumes and figures which in a beautiful initial state are transparencies and stripes. Those are the nuances that succeed each other and form the bulk of the matter as an expression of a human mystery.

The artist works with supports and materials, and at the same time with herself, because, as she builds her works, she is being represented. We could say (perhaps it is bold to do express it, but withing the terms of the current moment in her career, we must), although she is in constant evolution, and things can change, she maintains a dialogue with herself; she undresses her feelings at any moment and lets us knows without any subterfuge how she feels.

At first glance in Núria Guinovart’s artworks we find a rough and cold appearance, but you have to enter inside the piece to finally find the passion seeking for a balanced final touch at every arising plastic situation. Every piece is a world of its own, full of rich hues, textures, lines and shapes, that little by little, sort themselves and establish an emotional – yet organized – speech.

The aesthetic result comes to the artist, but is it not Nuria Guinovart as a person the first thing one would look for in her works. Her main motivations – we insist – are the desire to communicate with others and towards herself, while she is the first receiver of all the emotions that arise while she is expressed. Passion and sensitivity join and express themselves with courage in a natural sense of proportion. Basically she is pushed towards intuition and what is unknown, trying not to act without sanity. These are the reasons why her work pleases us.

Related Images: