Artist: Ignacio Uriarte
Exhibition title: Disegni Scritti
Venue: Rolando Anselmi, Berlin, Germany
Date: June 22 – July 20, 2016
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Rolando Anselmi, Berlin
Galerie Rolando Anselmi is delighted to present Disegni Scritti – a solo presentation by Ignacio Uriarte at the gallery project room in Rome. Inspired by his former career in business administration, Uriarte has developed a language that is able to translate this experience, made with analogue media and mechanical instruments, into an aesthetic one based on it but emancipated from its own simple representation. For this show, Ignacio Uriarte is presenting a selection of typewriter drawings. In these works, the typewriter is used as an unconventional medium: usually the letters compose words and those words compose sentences. In this case, the letters are used to produce images, in the same way a series of pencil-drawn signs would. Those images, created using rarefaction, repetition, juxtaposition or superimposition of typed letters, generate a thick pattern, itself producing geometrical compositions. In “The History of the Typewriter recited by Michael Winslow” (2009 HD-Film (RED) on BluRay (20’52)), the typewriter is again at the center of an analysis which in this case, is not related to the lettering, but rather to the sound produced by the typewriters. The american actor Michael Winslow, known as “The man of 10.000 sounds effect” for his capacity to reproduce any sound, executes the sounds of a selection of typewriters in a chronological order, creating a journey through almost 100 years of history, as an homage to the former essential presence of the typewriter in the office, and its entire spectrum of sounds.
Ignacio Uriarte was born in 1972 in Krefeld, Germany, and raised there. From 1992 to 1995 he studied Business Administration in Madrid and Mannheim and worked since then for corporations such as Siemens, Canon, Interlub and Agilent Technologies in Germany, Spain and Mexico. Parallel to his administrative work, he studied audiovisual arts at the Centro de Artes Audiovisuales in Guadalajara, Mexico from 1999 to 2001 and quitted his last serious fulltime-job in November 2003, dedicating himself since then to what he calls ‘office art’. Since 2007 he lives and works in Berlin.
Recent institutional solo exhibitions include Kunstmuseum Bergisch Gladbach, Germany and Mies van der Rohe Pavillion, Barcelona, Spain (2015) MARCO Museum, Vigo, Spain (2014), The Contemporary, Austin, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, and The Drawing Center, New York (2013) Espacio Marte and Casa del Lago, Mexico City (2011) Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia and Kunstverein Arnsberg (2010) Casa Encendida, Madrid and MUSAC, Leon (2009) Recent gallery solo exhibitions include Rolando Anselmi, Rome (2016) White Space, Beijing, China (2015 L21, Palma de Mallorca (2015, 2012) Figge von Rosen, Cologne-Berlin (2014, 2012) Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Spain (2013, 2011, 2007) Galleria Gentili, Prato, Italy (2012, 2008) and solo presentation at Art Positions, Art Basel Miami Beach, USA (2009). His work has been featured in a number of group exhibitions, including Kunstmuseum Bonn (2016) S.M.A.K. Ghent (2015) MACBA Museum, Barcelona, Albertina Museum, Vienna and Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2015) Lenbachhaus Munich and MUSAC, Leon (2014) Ludwig Museum, Cologne and Kunsthaus Dresden, Maison Particulaire, Bruxelles (2013) Musee des beaux-artes, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (2012) National Museum, Berlin (2011) FRAC Lorraine, Nancy (2011).
