Gonzalo Elvira

It's hard to choose one specific work, because all the works that we do represent us, or in some way they represent the time and the space that we've dedicated to them. In general when you work on thematic series, like me, the conception of time is different, it can take six months or three years depending on the extension of the work or the intensity of the subject.
In my case series often finish when a new stimulus appears, and if that new stimulus is really intense, it's hard not letting you go through it. It's important to maintain the intensity in the work and when it doesn't happen I think the best is to begin with something new.
Like it happened in some series in which I stayed frozen like for five years. Until a new sensation appears and you feel like that moment is the right one for a certain work and also because you have processed the work emotionally and or technically, you find then the tools to develop the idea, the impulse.
When the idea appears I start making sketches of how I would like to develop it, many transformations take place, from the beginning until the final work which is often very different from the first sketches.
For each series I use notebooks for taking notes: extracts from others books, notes that I take from movies, newspapers, works of other artists in relation with my subject, music, etc. Music is one of the most attached elements to my process of working at the workshop.
With some series I've used photography as a tool for documenting (sequences for a ladder, Nocturne), with other series I've used drawings with the same function (Spaces/emptiness, Res, Water like fire), and collage (1632/1967), and still photographic appropriation (Postales de San Cayetano, Ceferino Namuncurá, Jazz, Acuache, Memoria del bien perdido), and in Digital Cartographies I've asked for collaboration of friends who have lend me their fingerprints for the project.
Generally the materials I use are oil on canvas or on paper, applied with paint brush (series Secuencias para una escalera, Espacios/Vacíos, Velázquez and Las meninas como pretexto, Memoria del bien perdido, Agua como fuego, Ceferino, Postales de San Cayetano, Acuache, Jazz), in some I've used copper as media (serie Ceferino, Patagonía), I've tried oil with abrasive materials (series 1632-1967, Cartografías digitales, Secuencias para una escalera, Res) and tried with thread too (series Cartografías digitales).

Like any other, my work needs a time to reflect on it, to contemplate it, to get into it, to establish a connection. They are not works for a single watch. One of the things why I feel interested in art is the possibility to suggest, to disturb or to give an incentive to find different ways of perception through art works.

Up to date, I've been working between drawing and painting; I guess I’m into this tradition of drawers-painters. I've done things with engraving, all in mono copy, some objects too. I don't rule out manifestations like photography, video or sculpture. I have always thought that the subjects I’m working bring me up the techniques to work with, some of them I haven't developed seriously before. All techniques have difficulties and to develop work seriously, it’s better to be prepared to go through an idea with the most clearness as possible. My referents often come from music, cinema, literature, obviously visual arts, comics, architecture and dance. Generally I feel more enthusiastic with the artistic manifestations that I haven't worked with before. There are many different sorts of visual artists that I’m interested in, but I can tell that I like particularly the works or series from Boltanski, Bourgeois, Rothko, Richter, Kieffer, Eliasson, Juan Muñoz, Perejaume, Koudelka, George Rousse, Basilico, Polke, Jaume Plensa, Bacon, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Víctor Hugo, Rembrandt, Goya, Gutiérrez Solana, Aitor Ortiz, Hockney, Lucien Freud, Hamilton, Warhol, Piranesi and more. Visual Artist from Argentina, Berni, Spilimbergo, Breccia, Stupía, Kuitka, Iglesias Brickles, Macchi, Daniel García, Benedit, Noé, Macció, Nine, Gorriarena, Alonso, Bianchedi, Cristina Pieffer, Marcia Schvartz, Fontana, Coppola, Pablo Suárez and more. The list can be very large.

Since I've moved to Barcelona in 2000 I haven't seen many exhibitions and for sure I've missed a lot. I could note:
In Argentina:
Berni at the National art Museum
Noe at the National Art Museum
Benedit at the National Art Museum
Remo Bianchedi at the Cultural center of Recoleta, and at the Palis de glace Gorriarena at the Contemporary art Museum
Stupia at the Cultural Center of Recoleta
Iglesias Brickles at the Cultural Center of Recoleta
Berni correlatos at the Malba Museum
Daniel Garcia at the Ruth Benzacar Gallery
Leon Ferrari at Arcimboldo
Oscar Suarez at Diana Lowestein
Marcia Schzartz at the fernandez Blanco
Diego Perrotta at Albertos Elia
Nine at the Cultural center of recoleta
In Spain:
Kuitca at the Palacio Velazquez, Madrid
Jorge Macchi at La Casa Encendida, Madrid
Fabian Marcaccio at the Joan Prats Gallery, Barcelona
Horacio Coppola at the Telefonica Foundation, Madrid
Gustavo Roldan at the Mercado Gallery, Barcelona
Argentinian Plastic Artists, Kalos Gallery, Barcelona
Laura Lio, Antonio de Barnola Gallery. Barcelona
Patricio Reig, at the Segovia Isaacs Gallery, Barcelona
Aurelio Garcia, at Signes Gallery, Barcelona
Nine at the Norma Comics, Barcelona
Pat Andrea at the Victor Saavedra, Barcelona

I think that more than groups or a trend what is going on is a particular relationship between groups of artists. I also think that nowadays more than one image we appreciate points of view, ways of thinking and ways of transmitting ideas.
From this viewpoint I can see the richness of our ways of seeing and understanding things.
It would be great if we could have the chance to show our work outside Argentina with institutional support and diffusion, as I said, I think we have a way of seeing things, and we can do something to be included into the contemporary art history.