Ismael Lagares (Huelva, 1978)
Lagares is one of the Spanish artists of his generation with the greatest national and international outreach. Most of his production is made up of canvases, which can reach imposing sizes, where he applies dense oil impastos and hand-made ceramics covering the surface in striking three-dimensional compositions. He combines techniques such as collage or graffiti with Informalist inspirations in a vigorous and energetic creative process that never fails to result in harmonious compositions with an ingenious balance of their own.
Color and matter function as a bridge between the senses of the viewer and the inner world of the artist. Through an abstraction with a strong expressionist character, each work produces a strong visual impact on whoever observes it. He plays with the density and pigments, contrasting them with each other and the background, sometimes left to its pure white linen, and thus turning the support into pictorial material as well. His ever-changing palette takes us from luminous landscapes of intense reds, yellows, blues and oranges all the way to his Ocher Period or his Monochromatic Paintings, in which a single color dominates both the matter and the canvas. The thick segments of paint are more subtle but more important than ever and they incorporate small brushstrokes of color that, like flashes of light, emphasize the sculptorical quality of these artworks and reward an attentive gaze.
His more recent series have focused on white and precious metals such as 24k gold, as well as intricate all-ceramic pieces, and their next logical evolution: ceramics that completely separate from the wall to become free-standing sculptures. The artist continues to work, create and reinvent himself, showcasing his technical mastery and taking the expressive character of plastic media to new highs.
Lagares brings disorder, energy and beauty to everyday life and that is why his work is part of important national and international collections such as the Thyssen Bornemisza Foundation in Madrid, the Mª Cristina Masaveu Peterson Collection, the CAC in Malaga, the Benetton Foundation in Italy, the Valentín Madariga Foundation in Seville, the Duquesa de Alba Private Collection, the Banco Sabadell Foundation in Barcelona, the Courtyard Gallery Private Collection in Dubai, the Cáceres Museum, the MACBA in Barcelona, the Caja Rural de Jaén and Ciudad Real , the Caja Sur de Córdoba, the Pascual Ros Foundation, the Rafael Botí Foundation and the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Cultural Center of Malaga, to name a few.
Digital catalogue:
Works for sale by Ismael Lagares at Aurora Vigil-Escalera Art Gallery:
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