An exquisite corpse in Barcelona
Barcelona six hands. A four. One two. Anything goes when the exposition meets three of the artists who believe in these parts that more in love with the city declare themselves. And two of them also have their streets as one of the main reasons for their creations. Philip Stanton, Silvio Alino and Josep Moscardó. The trio participates ‘Summer Stories’, the exhibition that follows the game that the surrealists called an exquisite corpse –you know, the piece is created from the strokes of the participants who only see the contribution just before– shows collaborative works by the three authors in the Silvia Sennacheribbo Gallery.
The room is located in the upper part of Henry Granados, a street once desired for the tranquility of being a road with little traffic due to its peculiar conception: it does not end in the Gran Via but in the walls of the University of Barcelona, and now just as desired but with neighbors fed up with the restaurant and terrace theme park what it has become. But not only from eating does the artery live. Art is also present. Some say that it has become the new Consell de Cent, Barcelona’s quintessential gallery street until rentals and tourism put an end to the label. Enric Granados, at least, concentrates six rooms dedicated to art –Victor Saavedra, Marlborough, N2, Montagut and Jordi Pascual plus the aforementioned Sennacheribbo–. A seventh, ADN, is not far away, and until recently there was an eighth: Joan Gaspar, which in 2018 returned to its origins, Consell de Cent street.
tennis balls and wedding dresses
The grandfather of sennacheribbo it also had its moment in the artistic artery, occupying the space that in the 1960s housed one of Barcelona’s art temples, the René Metras gallery. It was before settling down seven decades on Rambla Catalunya and after open kiosk in the passage of madoz, next to the Royal square. There will be posted just arrived from Italy to sell foreign books and press. It went well for him, so much so that he moved and expanded the trade towards importing classic italian engravings Then came the frames and later the graphic work in general.
The family continued the legacy but the 70 years on Rambla Catalunya came to an end in 2007 due to the work and grace of the rental law. Where paintings used to be sold, tapas are now served. And Silvia Sennacheribbo transferred the gallery to Enric Granados. It works as an art room, but it also maintains the business of frames, like his grandfather. He makes them to measure and to frame anything, an oil painting with a signature is worth the same as an everyday object. He claims to have framed everything from tennis balls to wedding dresses. There is nothing.
From pop art to neo-impressionism
And it organizes exhibitions, the last one that occupies us. He chose the three creators for the hook they have among the public and because of how different they are. Thus, while Moscardó (Barcelona, 1953) is urban views – of Barcelona and other cities – on paper or canvas and with a style that defines itself as neo-impressionismthat of Alino (Sighi-șoara, Romania, 1980) is more a sum of pop art and ‘street art’ and a fixation on faces, from Frida Khalo to Jean-Michel Basquiat passing through Antoni Gaudí.
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Of the modernist genius is the portrait that Moscardó has intervened for the exhibition. And his view of Passeig de Gràcia is what he has worked on Philip Stanton (Columbus, USA, 1962). Little introduction needs the North American, renowned visual artist, painter, illustrator and designer with a very own style, halfway between cubism and pop, and with a cheerful look when picking up the brushes. There are the colorists 60 square meter mural in the Hospital de Sant Pau metro station of line 4 as a tribute to the role of toilets during the pandemic and the most recent, inaugurated last April, which welcomes the faculties of Sciences and Biosciences of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His next job is in Guatemala, where this summer he has a project and a schedule of classes at one of the country’s universities.
years of love for the city
Stanton, due to lack of time, was the most reluctant to participate in the game with the other creators but has ended up being the one who has participated the most pieces of the other two artists. In total, the sample adds eight works with the signature of more than one of the authors. Not all of them have Barcelona as the protagonist, but the three artists proclaim her love for her. Alino arrived two decades ago looking for himself and the mecca of ‘street art’ that was then the city. He fell in love with Barcelona, he says, and he is still here despite the changes. Something similar happened to Stanton but much earlier, in 1988. Moscardó didn’t have to travel to get there, he was born here, and his pictorial passion is the ‘quadrat d’or’.