Antonio Ballester Moreno: Gallo rojo, gallo negro

Antonio Ballester Moreno to show Gallo rojo, gallo negro at MUSAC’s laboratorio 987, an unprejudiced approach to painting technique

Venue: Laboratorio 987, MUSAC

Madrid-born artist Antonio Ballester Moreno (1977) premières at MUSAC’s Laboratorio 987 with an exhibition by the title of Gallo rojo, gallo negro [Red Cock, Black Cock], a complex and supersized figurative installation combining pieces in acrylic on canvas with biro ink drawings on paper. Antonio Ballester Moreno’s work revolves around the recreation of his private references, from everyday items to cultural allusions drawn from the realms of music, film or literature. Inspired by a special interest in all varieties of folklore and popular crafts, culture and customs, he takes his motifs from patchwork, embroidery, pottery, tiles or child-like drawings, developing a vast inquiry on an anthropological plane. The exhibition title itself recovers a song by singer-songwriter Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio that was adopted as an anthem against Franco’s dictatorship. The metaphor in the title conjures up the conflict between the two colours.

The large canvases and drawings that make up Gallo rojo, gallo negro capture a range of references to what André Rezler referred to as “anarchist aesthetics”. These are paintings in bright colours executed in broad brushstrokes, reminiscent of Matisse or even Picasso. According to the artist, this is the brushwork and technique that best ties in with his defence of crafts and artisanal work. Ballester Moreno’s paintings are an unprejudiced statement of the technique itself. Indeed, the artist relates this execution to his very concept of freedom.

His work embodies the idea of freedom one finds in paintings by children, by people with mental disorders or in the work of the Compagnie d´Art Brut, which included, amongst others, Jean Dubuffet, Breton and Michel Tapié. Ballester’s canvases capture precisely that freedom that comes into play when acting outside or against the established norm; an approach based on awakening individual consciences to a collective social revolution, on the assumption that any major social change arises essentially from changes on an individual level.

In the artist’s own words, his work reflects upon ”popular images as a statement in favour of traditions, of crafts and manual work, so direly neglected in our hyper-industrialised society. Both Tolstoy and Dubuffet, in their writings on art, spoke of an art without aspirations, of the irrational thinking that arises from and inspires attentive manual work, whatever the form; creativity as a reflection of a people’s health”. In his earlier work, the artist inquired into the relationships between men and animals, for example in his series of acrylic paintings Disfraz de oso (2006 2007), a reference to Werner Herzog’s documentary Grizzly Man, which tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, a man who attempted to live like the brown bears of Alaska. Ballester Moreno reveals his interest in mankind’s range of possible lifestyles; particularly those established outside the norm as a reflection of madness blurred with dreams. Indeed, the artist himself views his own work as a metaphor of these worlds. Here again, the exhibition title includes a reference to a specific animal: a cock, with all the symbolic meanings it carries.

Antonio Ballester Moreno explains: “with this exhibition I would like to show people how easy it is to paint. You don’t need grand aspirations, you just have to get down to it. Paint like you were chatting on the phone”. A true act of generosity on the artist’s part.

Antonio Ballester Moreno, biography Antonio Ballester Moreno (Madrid, 1977). Holder of a Degree in Fine Arts by the Complutense University of Madrid, he has also studied at Berlin’s Uiversität der Künste under professor Lothar Baumgarten. He has held relevant solo exhibitions both at home and abroad, such as this year’s exhibitions at Peres Projects Berlin and Los Angeles, by the titles of Bärkostum and Hunter House & Bear Suit Number Two; Stay High at Espacio Abisal, (Bilbao, 2005); Greens at the DF gallery in Santiago de Compostela, (2005); Just a little crime. New Dominions at los 29Enchufes, Madrid (2004) and Clean Sponsors at the Madrid Regional Government’s Centre for Young Art, (2003). He has also contributed to a number of group exhibitions, including Creador de Dueños at Offlimits, Madrid (2008); Existencias at MUSAC (2007); No Futuro at the Nelson Garrido Org., Venezuela (2007) and Entresijos y gallinejas at the Santa Mónica Art Centre, Barcelona (2007); the 47th Pollensa International Art Contest, Mallorca (2006) or Circuitos 15 at the Madrid Regional Government’s Centre for Young Art (2003). He has enjoyed a number of grants, including the MUSAC Grant for Artistic Creation (2006) and the Arte y Derecho Foundation’s Propuestas 2004 Grant.

Antonio Ballester Moreno: Gallo rojo, gallo negro

Kurator: Tania Pardo