Adrián S. Bará
Poems to the Unknown
NADA NY
May 18 to 21, 2023
Poems to the Unknown (8), 2023, Gypsum panel, watercolor, 70 x 42 inches
Adrián S. Bará (b.1982, Mexico City) explores themes of the body and its relationship with architecture, cities and matter. He uses everyday and found materials, such as wood, cardboard, newspaper, and drywall, among others, to critically analyze our built environments and their influence on us. Often making immersive installations with industrial materials, transforming them into complex narratives. He deconstructs our lived experiences, questioning the increasing state of disconnected alienation and vulnerability in our society.
In this new painting series presented at NADA NY, Poems to the Unknown, 2022-2023 Bará eloquently depicts the tension generated when industrial materials are utilized to standardize and encapsulate societies. Two elements are at the crux of these paintings from the moment they are produced: the presence of and liberation of the body through the paint strokes, and the effects of the passage of time on organic matter. Oranges are incorporated into sculptural arrangements, and function as constant reminders of entropy. For Bará these works are explorations and experiments on the possibilities of watercolor, beyond the parameters the medium typically allows for. In the artist's own words: "Painting is like making music; you work within the structural framework of specific notes. These notes are universal, but once you play them in a novel combination they become a unique composition. A kind of revelation occurs when water, an elusive entity, finds its own course, its own singular route."
Bará has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions at venues such as the Museo de Arte de Zapopan,Art Center of South Florida, Kasmin in New York, Casey Kaplan in New York, Travesía Cuatro in Guadalajara, and PEANA in Mexico City. In film, he was director of photography for the documentary The Solitude of Memory, which was included in the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. Bará has completed residencies at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), PIVÓ, Casa Wabi and KinoSaito Residency in New York. His works are part of private and public collections including: Isabel and Agustín Coppel Collection, Diéresis Collection, Gaia Collection, Imago Mundi Collection, Sayago & Pardon Collection and Suro Collection.
Poems to the Unknown (1), 2022
Gypsum panel, watercolor, artist frame made of 2 x 4 construction framing studs.
82.7 x 48 inches
Poems to the Unknown (16), 2023
Gypsum panel, watercolor, plywood frame
16-5/8 x 13-3/8 inches
Poems to the Unknown (18), 2023 Gypsum panel, watercolor, plywood
14 7/8 x 12 inches
Installation view, We Pass Too Quickly Through This Place of Birth and Death, PEANA, 2023, Mexico City, Mexico
Installation View, We Pass Too Quickly Through This Place of Birth and Death, PEANA, 2023,Mexico City, Mexico
Poems to the Unknown (17), 2023
Gypsum panel, watercolor, plywood frame
13-7/8 x 16-3/4 inches
Tree of Denial, 2023
clay, found branch, orange, cardboard paint, news paper
Detail: Tree of Denial, 2023
clay, found branch, orange, cardboard paint, news paper
Poems to the Unknown(6), 2023
Gypsum panel, watercolor
70 x 42 inch
Poems to the Unknown (14), 2023
Gypsum panel, watercolor, plywood frame
25-7/8 x 19-7/8 inches
Poems to the Unknown (11), 2023
Gypsum panel, watercolor, pastel, artist frame made of 2 x 4 construction framing studs
70 x 42 inches
Installation View: Estructuras de la razón, Páramo, 2019, Guadalajara, Mexico
Installation View: Casa Wabi 2019, Oaxaca, Mexico