Pau Escat is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Barcelona. His work investigates color and light in contact with materials, specifically the visual effect that this generates. His interest in observing these processes comes from two fields that have always been in his life: nature and jewelry. At first, one would say that they belong to opposing fields -the natural and the intervened, the wild and the domesticated, the living and the stony- but for the artist, they constitute the basis of the same way of looking and creating.
Nature, especially landscapes and atmospheres, allows him to express both the physical space, where effects such as color and light occur, and the intimate space, where color and light are associated with emotions. In this sense, the artist is interested in the pictorial tradition that, from a particular appreciation of landscape and nature, is a precursor of abstraction. In particular, his work focuses on the Dutch landscape painters of the seventeenth century, from whom he takes the bipartite composition of the painting and the characteristic vibration of the stormy skies. The impressionists have also been essential in his way of looking at nature, for their pictorial work of atmospheres that already brings them close to abstraction. In the artworks of the artist, a certain state of stillness, contemplation, and silence in front of natural phenomena is essential. His proposal is precisely interested in these moments dedicated to seeing for the pleasure of seeing, without haste or objective to fulfill. Thus, her paintings retain this atmospheric weightlessness, the result of contemplation, which gives a livid character to the set of elements.
Jewelry, on the other hand, represents for him the creative moment par excellence. After contemplation comes the action, which already reflects the artist's experience on the canvas. Pau Escat belongs to a family that has been dedicated to jewelry for more than a century. He was trained and worked in this profession, designing pieces that introduced him to the craftsmanship of materials, textures, and light. In addition, the art of creating jewelry provided him with a knowledge of symbolism that he recognizes as central to his artistic conception. His work gathers the experience of nature and works it to give it form and channel emotion, just as in jewelry the material becomes something more thanks to the jeweler. Like the symbol, the artwork transmits and communicates an idea, but admits a game between the subjective and the universal meanings. For the artist, this work with visual concepts is the basis of artistic creation. Always, of course, looking for the mystery rather than the explicit, through the abstract language that partially veils the symbol. For this reason, his works do not have a specific title either, building a diaphanous space for the viewer to interpret from his reception.
Both nature and jewelry also show how objects live, and how they change over time. Just as organic materials transform themselves, so do inorganic ones. The artist has always been fascinated by the effect that time has on canvases, painting surfaces, and colors. The golds that predominate in his work acquire different aspects according to the time of day and modify their tonalities depending on the light that bathes them. In the same way, the works and their materials, as happens with the jewels, vary, without any possible foresight, over time: spatial and temporal randomness, as well as meticulous artistic work.
EXHIBITIONS
2019
Bachs Gallery, Barcelona, Spain.
H10 Art Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Gallery 104, New York, USA
2020
Círculo Ecuestre, Barcelona, Spain
Exposición Galería Jorge Alcolea, Barcelona, Spain.
RA, Bachs Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Gallery 104, New York, USA
2021
Metamorfosis, Arte Contemporáneo, Formentera, Spain.
"Oxímoron" with Arthub Mahón Menorca, Spain
Behind the silence in Tilisitt Gallery, Oporto, Portugal
2022
Vernissage with Tilisitt Gallery, Oporto, Portugal
Something About Us, Casa Estudio Granados, Barcelona, Spain.
Atmosphere, Casa Estudio Granados. Barcelona, Spain
2023
Citra Korne, Lab36 de Galería Senda, Barcelona, Spain
Not the same anymore, Casa Estudio Granados, Barcelona, Spain
Gallery Gangnem, Seoul, South Korea
ART FAIRS
2020
Madrid Art Fair
2021
Art Fair Estampa, with Helarea. Madrid, Spain
Art Fair ART MADRID, with Helarea. Madrid, Spain
Art Fair "Cannes Festival" with Helarea. Cannes, Francia
2022
Kunstari Art, with Helarea. Amsterdam
Unfair, Feria Arte Contemporáneo with Helarea, Milan, Italy
Affordable Art Fair, Brussels, Belguim
Represented:
Tilsitt Gallery. Oporto, Portugal.
Casa Estudio Granados Gallery. Barcelona, Spain.
Arielle Dubois Agency, Geneve, Switzerland