【SPURS 新展】法利·阿吉拉尔：皮毛与洪水

法利·阿吉拉尔：皮毛与洪水

2022年11月5日至12月11日  

Gallery I｜SPURS Gallery，北京朝阳区酒仙桥路二号院798艺术区D-06

马刺画廊荣幸宣布将于2022年11月5日推出来自美国艺术家法利·阿吉拉尔（1980年出生于尼加拉瓜）的展览“皮毛与洪水”，这是阿吉拉尔在画廊举办的第二次个展。这次展览将在Gallery I呈现艺术家最新创作的8幅肖像绘画，围绕着他长久关注的历史事件展开对人类境遇的洞察和描绘。“皮毛与洪水”指的是近代社会发展过程中，皮毛从保暖的必需品逐渐演变成财富与社会地位的象征，工业革命后经济的快速增长则催生了众多灾害与苦难的降临。

阿吉拉尔的人物肖像常以历史照片为基础，他对色彩的应用极具表现主义风格，画面中人物的动作有些许僵硬，四肢会突然被漫画式的涂鸦模糊掉边界变得畸形，非自然的鲜艳颜色凸显了人物面部表情的不安。不同于以爱德华时代上流阶层为主要描绘对象的上一个展览“纸老虎”，在此次个展中他将代表了财富奢侈与辛劳苦难的两个群体并置。

《六个男人和影子》（Six Men with Shadow，2022）中安德鲁·卡内基和小亨利·菲普斯坐在左侧的沙发上，他们的四位商业伙伴环绕在其周围，其中一人的红色影子被移植上粉色的手，致敬阿吉拉尔喜爱的德国表现主义电影《奥拉克之手》（Orlacs Hände）。象征着欲望和罪恶的色块与克制的人物表情和精致的室内环境相冲突，这种分裂状态也指向了商业巨头们在通过掠夺与压榨积累了财富后，又转身投向慈善事业的事实。在19世纪下半叶后，资本依赖于煤炭、钢铁的生产，很大程度上造成了无可挽回的环境污染和社会系统的宿疾。《六个孩子和风暴》（Six Children with Storm，2022）和《灾后》（After the Collapse，2022）分别以1948年美国梵港市在哥伦比亚河洪水后被毁与1966年英国艾伯凡矿灾作为背景。即使这两幅作品描绘的都是灾难过后的场景，但画面中风暴还在盘旋着，孩子们背后的人群表情凝重，预示着更加严重的困境还会持续发生。

阿吉拉尔冲破了原始照片图像的平衡，面对权贵群体，他倾向于打破画面的稳定，人物展现了介于高雅与贪婪之间的姿态；而面对群像绘画的另一主体——社会系统和自然灾难的受害者时，阿吉拉尔则着力于严谨地去刻画人物背后的环境，强调他们所处的困境。阿吉拉尔深切地关注着历史上财富与收入的不平等、长期的战争破坏与种族压迫的不公，他的作品也在吸引着观众去了解绘画中人物的处境，反思人类是否能重新找回生存状态的平衡。

展览将持续至2022年12月11日。

法利·阿吉拉尔，《六个男人和影子》，2022，亚麻布面油画、油画棒及铅笔，188 x 269 cm｜Farley Aguilar, Six Men with Shadow, 2022, oil, oil sticks, and pencil on linen, 188 x 269 cm

Farley Aguilar: Fur and Flood

5 November - 11 December 2022

Gallery I | SPURS Gallery, D-06, 798 Art Zone, 2 Jiuxianqiao Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing

SPURS Gallery is pleased to present "Fur and Flood" on 5 November 2022. This is the second solo exhibition of American artist Farley Aguilar (b. 1980, Nicaragua) with the gallery. Eight of Aguilar's most recent portraiture will be presented in Gallery I, offering depictions of and insights into the human condition around historical events that have long preoccupied him. "Fur and Flood" refers to the development of modern society, in which furs evolved from a necessity for warmth to a symbol of wealth and social status, and the rapid economic growth after the Industrial Revolution led to numerous disasters and miseries.

Aguilar's paintings are often based on historical photographs. With his highly expressionistic application of colors, the limbs of his stiff figures are suddenly deformed by caricature-like graffiti that blur the borders. The restlessness of their facial expressions is also emphasized by non-naturalistic bright colors. Unlike Aguilar's previous exhibition, "Sauvage Effete", in which he chose found images mainly from the upper class of the Edwardian era, this time he juxtaposes two groups, the wealthy and the suffering, in the new upcoming exhibition.

In the painting Six Men with Shadow (2022), Andrew Carnegie and Henry Phipps Jr. are seated on the left couch, surrounded by their four business associates. Onto the red shadow of one of the figures is grafted a pink hand, referencing from Orlacs Hände, one of Aguilar's favorite German Expressionist films. The red and pink patches symbolizing uncurbed compulsion and sin clash with the restrained smile of the figures and the exquisite interiors. This conflict also points to the fact that business tycoons accumulated wealth through plunder and oppression, while turning back to philanthropy in their later years. After the second half of the 19th century, relying on industrialization, capital largely caused irreparable environmental pollution and corrupted the social systems. Six Children with Storm (2022) and After the Collapse (2022) are respectively set against the background of the destruction of Vanport City after the 1948 Columbia River flood and the catastrophic collapse in the 1966 Aberfan disaster. Though both paintings depict the aftermath of a disaster, storms are still swirling around, and the crowd behind the children wears a stony expression that foreshadows more severe tragedy.

By breaking the balance of the found images, Aguilar tends to destroy the structure of the canvas. Figures with power and wealth are displaying poses between elegance and greed. While in the subjects of people suffering from the social system and natural disasters, Aguilar concentrates on depictions of the environment behind the figures, emphasizing their plight. Deeply concerned with persistent inequalities of wealth, the devastation of wars, and the injustice of racial oppression, Aguilar's work also draws the viewer into understanding the situation of the figures in his paintings and reflecting on whether humanity can rediscover the balance of its existence.

The exhibition will be on view until 11 December 2022.

法利·阿吉拉尔，《矿工》，2022，亚麻布面油画、油画棒及铅笔，112 x 86 cm｜Farley Aguilar, The Miner, 2022, oil, oil sticks, and pencil on linen, 112 x 86 cm

关于艺术家  

法利·阿吉拉尔，1980年出生于尼加拉瓜，是一位自学成才的艺术家，现生活和工作于美国迈阿密。1980年代中期，法利还年幼的时候，为了躲避战乱，阿吉拉尔一家移居美国。阿吉拉尔从历史照片中汲取灵感，用绘画探讨权力动态、群体心理、肤色歧视、种族、性别、童工、战争等议题。通过将作品建立在事实之上，阿吉拉尔在过去、现在与未来的社会政治现实之间架起桥梁。

阿吉拉尔用油画、油画棒和铅笔创作出一系列令人不安的作品。在平和的色彩与参差的图形碰撞中，阿吉拉尔不断挖掘历史的心理深度，人物从地上的一团噪音中跳脱出来，面孔是比肉身更具表现力和流动性的面具。

透过绘画，阿吉拉尔省思基本的社会平衡——看与被看、主体与客体以及(可能最重要的)个体与群体之间的关系，向观众展现了古往今来身体如何被当作社会动荡的燃点和症候。

Farley Aguilar (b. 1980) is a self-taught Nicaraguan artist living and working in Miami. Aguilar’s parents emigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s when he was a young child, fleeing the Contra War. Taking inspiration from historical photographs, he paints images that address power dynamics, group psychology, colorism, race, gender, child labor, incarceration, and war. By basing his compositions in fact, Aguilar bridges past, present, and future socio-political realities.

Using oil, oil sticks, and pencil to create unsettling compositions, Aguilar dredges the psychological depth of history with his placid pools of color that crash against jagged forms; figures spring from the scribbled noise of the ground and faces are masks more expressive and shifting than flesh itself.

Through the lens of his paintings, Aguilar meditates on fundamental social balances: the shift between seeing and being seen, between agency and objectification, and, perhaps most importantly, the relationship between the individual and the crowd. Aguilar shows how, throughout history, the body is scapegoated as the flashpoint and symptom of social turmoil.

法利·阿吉拉尔过往回顾阅读：

SPURS 即将展出

法利·阿吉拉尔：皮毛与洪水

2022年11月5日至12月11日  

Gallery I｜SPURS Gallery，北京朝阳区酒仙桥路二号院798艺术区D-06

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