Mònica Armengol
Artista visual
Benvinguts a la meva pàgina web. Podreu trovar-hi tota la informació referent a la meva pràctica artística!
Bonjour et bienvenus sur mon site web. Vous trouverez ici toute l'information concernant ma pratique artistique!
Bienvenidos a mi página web. Aquí podreis encontrar toda información referente a mi práctica artística!
Welcome to my website. Here you will find all the information concerning my art works!
Abans que res pintura d’acció, la meva pràctica artística es defineix com una recerca sobre la capacitat expressiva del color des d’un punt de vista purament abstracte i sensual.
Per definir la meva pràctica empro la paraula “tintura”. Es tracta d’aplicar una matèria colorant sobre un suport tèxtil, paper o altre, de tal manera que el color apareix com una propietat del material tenyit i no com un efecte de superfície.
Colors que es mantenen en la gama càlida del espectre, vermells, terres, ocres, taronges, com rastres de sang que donen vida a la pintura. Blaus, tons freds, profunds, que accentuen la profunditat i la sensació d’espai.
El gest, l’acció formen parts importants del meu plantejament artístic. La impregnació del suport de grans dimensions, l’ús del color en forma liquida i en gran quantitat donen màxima importància al gest i a l’expressivitat sobre el suport.
La rapidesa d’execució i la falta d’allunyament en relació al suport afavoreix l’impuls, l’accident. L’expressió de la forma se sintetitza al màxim, obliga a realitzar un mínim d’esforç per una màxima expressió. La taca, la línia, l’estrip, vistos individualment agafen en conjunt i amb la distancia un significat diferent.
Els grans suports tenyits es fragmenten per crear una nova composició mitjançant el collage i el marrouflage. Aquest procediment funciona com a element regulador del color i la matèria. La necessitat d’estructuració, en juxtaposició amb l’aleatorietat i la gestualitat, segueix sent una constant en la meva pràctica.
When I talk about my practice I tend to define it as tincturing even if it is not quite properly the technique employed. I apply a colorant material on a piece of fabric without any grounding in such a way that the colour appears as a tinctured material and not as an applied or smeared coat.
Influenced by “action” paintings, I usually fix canvases to the floor and I impregnate them with liquid colour giving an uppermost importance to gesture and expression on the support. The tracing results from large movements in which my whole body is engaged.
The process of making is more important than the resultant work of art. Working as if without wanting, without knowing, just by using the mechanics of gestures, by going through the motion by means of huge fabrics, allows me to walk on, by and around the support. I am literally inside the painting. I am somehow, also, the painting.
The speediness in the execution and the lack of distance with the support excludes hesitation and allows for spontaneity. My hand acts without any control of the will or of desire.
I normally work with canvases without stretchers. Nevertheless, the need for structure coexists with the need for randomness and spontaneity, so the outcome is a sort of balance. The process of making ends with sewing together pieces of fabric into a larger design. A new pattern is built up with different fabric shapes previously painted.
The patch and the line, seen individually take a different significance when observed globally or in detail. When seen at a close range, the material and the figure proportion make the details difficult to recognise but when seen at the distance, the figure is identifiable thanks to the reading of some cultural, intuitive and interpretative signs.
Since I have introduced the figure in my practice I have worked with the human body. The figure has a double meaning in my work. Firstly, it appears as a regulation of matter and colour. But it appears also as a bulk which is the expression of a sensibility trough the combination of curves and textures that remind of the action of the body around the support during the process of making.
Mònica Armengol is a high school art teacher at Escola Andorrana de Batxillerat in Andorra. She received her Masters of Fine Arts Degree in colour in environmental projects from the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail, France. In 2008 she was granted with a Fulbright scholarship : Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI). She completed her academic studies in scenography at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, Spain, before moving back to Andorra to create the Escola d’Art d’Ordino, the first municiple art school where she worked as a director and fine arts teacher for 3 years.
She created the scenography for theater productions like “Pedra de Tartera”, from Maria Barbal, by An-Danda-Ra; and “Dakota”, from Jordi Galceran, by Somhiteatre and participated to the PQ (Prague Quadrennial) with a fire performance. This experience influenced her art work which consists mostly of theatrical installations made of paper, colour and light, specially designed for the site.
She participated in artist residency programs. The first was « Andorra Tallers d’Art », with Pedro Sancristobal, Ermengol Puig and Joan Gil Gregorio as curators. For her last residency, she was invited to participate in the « Art Camp, Colors per al Planeta » an international art and culture exchange held in Andorra and commissioned by UNESCO and the Andorran Government. Recent solo exhibitions took place at the La Llacuna cultural center, in Andorra and at L’aparador Gallery, in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain. Recent group exhibitions include « Sants inocents », Ara Art Gallery, Andorra ; Mostra d’art d’Andorra, Sala d’exposicions de Govern, Andorra ; and « Artistes à Suivre », Haute vallée de l’Aude, France ; « Chrysalis, the symbol of transformation », Primo piano Livin’Gallery, Italie, and « Moya Annuale » 2013 and 2014, Moya Museum of Young art, Vienne. The last one have one of her works on the permanent collection. She currently lives and works in Andorra.
