Xavier Escribà (Paris, 1969) studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts Sant Jordi of the University of Barcelona, and later at the Superior School of Fine Arts of Paris thanks to an Erasmus grant. It was in Paris where he began his artistic career and where he lived for more than ten years, until in 2005 he decided to settle with his family in the Empordà region.
In 1990 he had his first solo show at the Institut Français in Barcelona, which set off a period of great artistic production and recognition in the form of various national and international prizes, such as the Fénéon d’Arts Plàstiques de Paris Award, the Antoine Marin / Rencontres 2003 d’Arcueil Painting Prize and the IV Biennal d’Art, Fundació Casa de Cultura in Girona, amongst others.
It could be said that his work ties in with the French movement of the end of the 1960s known as Supports/Surfaces, which gave the same value to materials, the creative gesture and the finished work. In this regard, Escribà’s work is grounded on an idea that questions the canvas on the stretcher frame as the ideal support for all non-mural painting.
In this work painting has volume, but not in the sense of moving towards a more sculptural concept. Just the contrary: it confirms itself in the very notion of painting. It insists on a reflection of painting itself as the main feature in the work. The canvas, as a support, also takes on importance as part of a new paradigm, turning in upon itself, folding, being nailed, growing, fragmented, consolidating and overlaying itself, talking on a variety of volumes and appearances. All this is done with a luminous palette centred on the primary colours, once again responding to a quest for painting’s essence.
The exhibition presented here brings together a selection of Xavier Escribà’s work from the past 15 years, demonstrating the artist’s honesty in his approach to art. We see how Escribà’s work liberates painting from classical precepts like planimetry or its conception as a vehicle of expression, as well as the limits imposed by the frame and rectangular formats. In his painting the limits are placed in the viewer’s gaze. It should be emphasised that Escribà has continued to work with the same acrylic materials, which far from dragging him down have allowed him to explore their possibilities to the limit.
We thus propose an exhibition experience that invites us to be freed of previous convictions, presenting us with painting in the most essential sense of the concept, an exercise in sincerity in painting and the painter making it possible.