Krabb Painting, Oil on Linen and Ikea Mirror, 2019

BERNAT DAVIU(b.1985, lives and works in Barcelona)

“Central to my practice is the making of images with discordant layers of meaning; addressing the issue of integrating life and art. Painting remains at the core of my production, however, it evolves alongside other disciplines allowing me to expand the potential information inherent in an image.

I am interested in the shift of significance of certain forms caused by time and context. Following this trajectory I have been contrasting the visionary experiments of utopian Modernism with specific situations taken from my personal life. Inevitably, irony is present in many of these juxtapositions, particularly referring to the commercial and the critical values of art.

I am as much interested in what happens on the surface of my paintings as in what happens around the painting. Performance, video or costume design are other mediums I use to explore the possibilities of images.”

Bernat Daviu (1985, Fonteta). Studied at Central Saint Martins de Londres. His works and projects have been exhibited at Caixa Forum (Barcelona 2019, Madrid 2020), Cuchifiritos Gallery (Nueva York, 2018), Bombon projects (Barcelona 2018), Fundació Arranz-Bravo (L’Hospitalet, 2017), Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona,2016), Nau Estruch (Sabadell, 2015), Galeria Balaguer (Barcelona, 2015), Uma certa falta de coerencia (Porto, 2014), Guest Projects (London, 2012), Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, 2012) or Bienal de Jafre (Jafre, 2009), among others.

E GIRA TUTTO INTORNO ALLA STANZACAIXAFORUM (MADRID & BARCELONA)2019

In the context of the exhibition “Painting. A permanent challenge ” at Caixa Forum, the artist Bernat Daviu in collaboration with elAMOR proyectos presented a performative action with a group of dancers choreographed by Mar Aguiló.

Inspired by the phenomenon that has emerged among some young teenagers to dance in front of modern buildings in order to see themselves reflected, Daviu proposes to use the works of the exhibition’s artists as a mirror to refine the choreography.

During the action, the performers will wear the work Daviu has in the exhibition –the “Overall paintings”- and will dance in front of the works of Spalletti, Ryman or Angela de la Cruz.

E gira tutto intorno alla stanza, performance, Caixaforum (Madrid & Barcelona) 2019

Overall paintings, Acrylic on canvas, 2011-12

E gira tutto intorno alla stanza, performance, Caixaforum (Madrid & Barcelona) 2019

Sunday Art Fair, duo show with Anna Dot, London, 2019

Ficus, 73 x 60 cm, oil on canvas, 2019

Stanza, 146 x 114 cm, oil on canvas, 2020

Krabb off-cuts, enamel acrylic paint on canvas, 2019

These works are the off-cuts from the paintings used to make the costumes . They are the fragments of the canvas that are not used. Daviu is interested in the shapes that emerge; shapes that he is not able to control or define. This way of working is totally oposed to his method and that’s what facinates him. It is as if the work is made by itself.

Xarrupa que vessa, Oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm , 2019

XARRUPA QUE VESSA2015-ONGOING

“Xarrupa means to slurp in English. So they are paintings that are asking you to slurp them. The idea came at the oldest and probably the most popular cocktail in Barcelona, called Boadas. A friend took me there to cheer me up. This was at the time I had just moved to the city and adaption wasn’t so easy. The guy making the cocktails asked me what I wanted and I had no clue what to say; first because I didn’t have a clue about cocktails and second because I didn’t really wanted one. He made the choice himself and prepared me a colourful, layered drink that awoke my imagination. That cocktail looked like one of these typical and iconic abstract works from the 20th century with bands of horizontal colours: Blinky Palermo, Agnes Martin, Rothko, Ellsworth Kelley and many more had done similar compositions in their paintings.”

The Xarrupa is an ongoing series of works that began in 2015 with the Cocktail show at Galeria Balaguer.

Xarrupa, 100 x 70 cm, oil on canvas, 2020

Xarrupa, 200 x 170 cm, oil on canvas, 2018

RESSURRECTION IN THE EVENINGLe Lucky curated by Josep MaynouHVW8 BERLIN2018

The porró is a traditional Catalan object used to drink wine. Daviu takes as a starting point the odd appearance of such thing to produce what look like avant-garde sculptures.

As in many of his work, these objects function both as art objects to contemplate and objects with an actual purpose. This allows the work to move into perfomative situations.

For Josep Maynou’s exhibition produced a porró with a special drink called Resurrection in the Evening.

Ressurection in the evening, Le Lucky curated by Josep Maynou, HVW8 Berlin , 2019

Vernissage sur l’herbe, FESTUS, performance at Torrelló, 2019

LA GRAN TORNADAPERFORMANCE AT SOHO HOUSE, GARRAF2018

La Gran Tornada (The Great Comeback) staged the return of the oldest standing public sculpture in Barcelona to the quarry where its material came from.

Daviu reproduced the lion that is guarding the figure of Hercules into an inflatable. This inflatable showed up in El Garraf, the place of the quarry, and pronounced a speech denouncing the destruction of El Garraf’s landscape to serve the needs of Barcelona.

The sculpture and the performance were commissioned by Soho House and were part of the program of Barcelona Gallery Weekend.

La gran tornada, inflatable, performance at Soho House Garraf, 2018

Jornada Garrofista, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona 2018

Inmarchitables, Cuchifritos, New York. Residence at Artist Alliance, 2018

APAÑOBOMBON PROJECTSwith Ángela de la Cruz, Vasilis Asimakopoulos2018

In this exhibition, the concept of a Gallery itself is questioned and also challenged. The works appear in the space as garments in a shop; everyday objects, stripped of the majesty that often surrounds works of art in galleries or museums.

Bernat Daviu’s works move from the two-dimensional space of the painting to the three-dimensionality of the body and vice versa. The artist uses the iconic shape of a discontinued Ikea mirror, obsolete and unfashionable, to imagine a new world where these recycled colourful waves have taken the centre stage of our daily lives, flooding the space around us. The pieces of the wall, conceived to be modular, are presented in the shop so that once acquired, they can be assembled to the taste of the spectator, generating infinite combinations.

Fragment of the exhibition text by Joana Roda

Krabb Jumpsuit, Bombon Projects. Oil on canvas Barcelona, 2018

Krabb Painting, Enamel paint on mirrors, group show at Bombon projects, Barcelona, 2018

Apaño, Enamel paint on mirrors, group show at Bombon projects, Barcelona, 2017

GUANYAR-SE LES GARROFESFUNDACIÓ JOAN MIRÓ, BARCELONA2016

HD Film (12’ + 16’ + 11’)

Guanyar-les les garrofes is a video production of three chapters. Its leitmotif is the garrofa (carob tree), which becomes the symbol of an imaginary avant-garde movement, Garrofisme. The three chapters relate the gestation of this new trend and take place in three emblematic places of Catalan modernity: the Joan Miró Foundation, La Ricarda and Mont- roig del Camp.

At the Miró Foundation there is a banquet that recalls the symposia in antiquity, a mixture of food, concert and conversation. In La Ricarda takes place the moment of inspiration and first disquisitions of the leader of the movement, performed by Marcel Rubio. Finally, in Mont-roig a procession takes place to honour the carob tree, which has already become a venerated element, an object of worship.

The project revolves around the image we have inherited of the avant-garde movements in the Catalan context. As in performative caterings, this legacy is directed and adapted to the local context, with all the irony arising from the strange clash between the extreme idealism and dogmatism with which the different “isms” and bias have often been characterized as vernacular, between imported ideas and those of the territory itself.

This particular assimilation is not exempt of globalizing aspirations, another defining element of the first avant-gardes. From the Mediterranean inflection, it aspires to influence and transform the whole universe. But, as with the incipient avant- garde formations in our context, the parrots of garrofisme end up representing the illusion and illusions that come from a limited and precarious reality, which is the reality in which most of the artists usually live.

Guanyar-se les garrofes, video, Fundació Miró. Barcelona, 2016

Guanyar-se les garrofes, frame, Fundació Miró. Barcelona, 2016

https://vimeo.com/168355064https://vimeo.com/168355064

COCTEL SHOWGALERIA BALAGUER2016

The proliferation of cocktails at selected art events takes takes over and becomes the main theme of this exhibition. Visual references to avant-garde movements are present in the paintings, creating an imaginary in which art is subdued to cockatils.

During the years that Bernat Daviu worked at Christie’s, he wrote down the drinks served at the Modern and Post-war art auctions. Daviu was curious to find a relationship between the elegance and grandeur of the atmosphere and the transgressive nature of many of the works.

After giving it some thought, Daviu decides that the cockatils served at such events and that are meant to be secondary, become the protagonist in this conflict. In this process, he also finds out that making a cocktail and a painting is similar, in the sense that it is about adding and removing elements (ingredients) until you reach the perfect combination.

Caipirinha, Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, Galeria Balaguer. Barcelona, 2015

Còctel show (exhibition view) Galeria Balaguer, Barcelona, 2015

Untitled, Oil on Canvas, Galeria Balaguer, Barcelona, 2015

Forever Blowing Bubbles, Performance, 2014-2015

En algun punt de la línia (Exhibition view), Uma certa falta de coerencia, Porto, 2014

https://vimeo.com/93013904

En algun punt de la línia (Exhibition view), Uma certa falta de coerencia, Porto, 2014

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BIO

Fonteta, 1985. Lives and works in Barcelona, Spain

Studies

2005-2008 Central Saint Martin’s: BA (Hons) Fine Art (1st Class Honours), London, UK

Exhibitions

2019E gira tutto intorno alla Stanza (performance), Caixa Forum, MadridSunday Art Fair, LondonVernissage sur l’herbe, FESTUS, TorellóLa pintura. Un reto permanente, Caixa Forum, BarcelonaCoctel de gambes, Calella de PalafrugellPremi de pintura Francesc Gimeno, Museu de Tortosa, TortosaLe Lucky, curated by Josep Maynou, HVW8, Berlin2018NADA Miami, Miami, USALa gran tornada, Soho House El Garraf (performance)Jornada Garrofista, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona (performance)Inmarchitables, Cuchifritos Gallery, New York, USAApaño (Angela de la Cruz, Vasilis Asimakopoulos, Bernat Daviu), Bombon projects, Barcelona2017Loop Discover Award, Loop Film Festival, Antiga Fàbrica Damn, BarcelonaSublimey (group show with Marc Badia and Luis Guerra), Hans and Fritz, BarcelonaGarrofistes, Fundació Arranz-Bravo, l’Hospitalet de Llobregat (solo)Trobada Garrofista (Forever Blowing Bubbles), MACBA, Barcelona (performance)2016Guanyar-se les garrofes (Forever Blowing Bubbles), Fundació Miró, Barcelona, SpainSlow, thick fingers, Kingsgate Project Space, London, UK2015Còctel Show, Galeria Balaguer, Barcelona, Spain (solo)Forever Blowing Bubbles, Nau Estruch, Sabadell, SpainAleksandr Rodhcenko’s Stuffed Olive: Bernat Daviu / Redestinar: Bruno Ollé i Nikita Routchenko, The Laboratory, Barcelona, Spain

2014Sacsejar la mirada, Unzip, El Prat, SpainUn Francès, un Anglès i un Espanyol, La Puntual, St Cugat, SpainAct I. A Way Home, The LivingRoom, London, UKEn algun punt de la línia, Uma Certa falta de Coerencia, Porto, Portugal (solo)Painted Realities, Hanmi Gallery, London, UK2013Bernat Daviu and Joan Saló, PictoBCN, El Siglo, St.Cugat, SpainFundació Vila Casas Painting Award, Can Framis Museum, Barcelona, SpainSuspense (with Alaena Turner), UCL, London, UK2012John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK20 Rue de Jacob - A Salon for Performance and Other Happenings, Galleria Rajatila, Tampere, FinlandWhat do you do?, Intervention in LAUDA’s headquarters, Lauda-Königshofen, GermanyWhat do you do?, Palau de Casavells, Casavells, Spain (solo)Orchestrated, Studio One Gallery, Cato Hall, London, UKShelves, Chairs and Boiler suits, Tollbodallmenningen 39, Bergen, Norway2011 Stuff on the wall, on the floor, floating in the air..., Guest Projects, London, UKThe Public House- a pop-up home for performance, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, London, UKArt Barter, C arte C, Madrid, Spain2010 Drive Thru (Old Bridge), with Harry Blackett and Sam Whittaker, Deptford X Festival, London, UKFrom London With Love, Wanha Woimala, Vaajakoski, FinlandThe Real Van Gogh Part 2, Studio 1 Gallery, London, UK (solo)‘The decade 2010-2020’ The Museum as hostage to fortune’, Pigeon Wing Gallery, Lon-don, UK2009 Pintura Democràtica, IV Bienal de Jafre, Jafre, SpainSplash Paintings, Galeria Miquel Alzueta, Barcelona (solo)Underground Temple For Paintings, with Harry Blackett at Next Art Fair, ChicagoThe Little Show, Studio 1 Gallery, London, UKGroup Show, Galeria Miquel Alzueta, Barcelona

2008 Jesús was an artist … Galeria Miquel Alzueta, Casavells, Spain (solo)CSM 08 Degree Show, Central Saint Martins, London, UK2007 Exporta-accions, Castell de la Bisbal d’Empordà, La Bisbal d’Empordà, SpainSuper-heroes, Galeria Marita Segovia, Madrid, Spain (solo)Da! Tottenham Court Road, London, UK Publications

Whose language does the produce speak?, Artist Alliance inc, 2018Garrofistes -Bernat Daviu, Fundació Arranz-Bravo, 2017Artist film and video today, Loop Barcelona, 2016Porró, Apis press, Norway, 2014Fundació Vila Casas painting award, Barcelona, 2013PictoBCN, Barcelona, 2013What do you do?, Casavells, Spain, 2012John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, UK, 2012Shelves, Charis and Boilersuits, Apis press, Norway, 2012From London with Love (limited edition of 200 copies), Finland, 2010‘The decade 2010-2020’ The Museum as hostage to fortune’, An Endless Supply, UK, 2010Artists’ Impressions of Spaces for Paintings, An Endless Supply, UK, 2010Underground Temple for Paintings, An Endless Supply, UK, 2010 Workshops & Residences

2018 Artist Alliance, New York, USA2015 Nau Estruch, Sabadell, Spain2012 Experimental cinema workshop by Walter Temporelli, Hangar, Barcelona. Screen-ing at Caixa Forum, Barcelona2011 Retreat residency, Paradise Lost, Cumbria, UK

Bombon C/Trafalgar 45, local 3

08010 Barcelonainfo@bombonprojects.com