English
MIKEL ERKIAGA
MIKEL ERKIAGA
Amu bakoitzean
Amu bakoitzean 29 March - 29 May 2022
NEXT EXHIBITION barriek IRANTZU YALDEBERE 31 May - 31 July 2022
rekalde Alameda Recalde, 30 | 48009 Bilbao Tel. +34 94 406 85 32 www.salarekalde.bizkaia.eus Ordutegia Asteartetik larunbatera: 10 - 14 eta 17 - 20:30 Igande eta jai egunetan: 10 - 14 Astelehenetan itxita Horario Martes a sábado: 10 - 14 y 17 - 20:30 h Domingos y festivos: 10 - 14 h Lunes cerrado Opening hours Tuesday to Saturday: 10 - 14 and 17 - 20:30 h Sundays and holidays: 10 - 14 h Monday closed sarrera doan | entrada libre | admission free
Sala Rekalde presents Amu bakoitzean, an exhibition of work by MIKEL ERKIAGA. The show forms part of the barriek programme, which showcases a selection of work from beneficiaries of the Provincial Government of Bizkaia’s grants for the plastic and visual arts The show consists of a series of works that operate as a hinge between photography and painting, through which it is hoped to explore the artist’s work. The title, Amu bakoitzean (On Every Hook), refers to the trap involved in this research. In the painter’s working process, the two disciplines —photography and painting— act as bait for one another. The net result is a series of works intertwined in a single duality. The exhibition includes large and small format pieces, as well as a number of Polaroid photographs. The cadences and alterations in colour to be seen in these photo-objects were the seed from which the artist began to explore the possibility of re-signifying and rethinking our surroundings through painting. Behind each of the pieces, transformed and stripped of its original representation, is the idea that these photo-objects are also photo-paintings.
Alda. Recalde, 30 - 48009 Bilbao - Tfno. +34 94 4068532 - www.salarekalde.bizkaia.eus
The margins separating photography from painting can also be interpreted as a bridge between the two languages.
MIKEL ERKIAGA
The plastic and visual qualities of the Polaroid image enable it to be used as a technique for conducting a pictorial search. Like some filter across the viewfinder, a dérive emerges that extends across landscapes and objects, in such a way they are seen through photography as if they were paintings, while at the same time the act of taking photographs becomes a pictorial exercise.
Born in Bilbao in 1994, Erkiaga received a BA in Fine Arts (2016) and an MA in Painting (2017) from the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. He spent his Erasmus year at the ASP in Wroclaw, Poland (2016). His work has been shown in solo exhibitions such as Tarde roja, hoja azul at the Juan Manuel Lumbreras gallery in Bilbao (2019) and Sitsak Janiko Berbak at the Arrigorriaga exhibition hall (2017).
I happened to run into Mikel a few days ago and he showed me some of the work he had selected for the exhibition. In his workspace I came to understand the different experimental processes that have shaped these and other pieces. There is an initially cautious pictorial approach to them. Observation is an indispensable part of the way they are developed; they are constructed slowly, with the different supports he uses intervening more and more decisively as the process progresses.
He has also exhibited in group shows such as Soplo. Arnasketa saiakerak at Euskal Museoa, Bilbao (2021) and Gallery. Delivery ‘Compartir la vida vivida’, (Getxo and Bilbao, 2021) among others.
I was surprised to see that just when the pieces seem to be narrowing in on their final forms of expression, a new search emerges and the process continues. In this way, the image allows for a range of interpretations. The pictorial action itself plays a more important role in the working process. There is an ever-greater and wider desire to paint on any photograph — although not just any image will do. All of his work reflects his interest in preserving the photograph, but it does not determine it. There are ornamental motifs —flowers, buildings, balconies, etc.— which are subordinated and linked to textures and colours, in a dialogue that has been there from the outset. Jenni Alvarado March 2022
www.mikelerkiaga.com
He has received various scholarships and travelled on academic sojourns and has also been involved in mediation programmes such as GetxoArte 2021. In April 2022 he will be taking part in the Buen Vivir artist residency programme, organized by Muturbeltz. Erkiaga uses themes such as landscape and still life to blur the boundaries between photography and painting.