Antoni Camarasa
El Seminari Centre Tarraconenese
Carrer de Sant Pau 4, Tarragona
Inauguration
Friday February 21, 2020 at 19:00
From february 21 to september 27, 2020
In collaboration with the Centre Tarraconense El Seminari, we present Imagined Hermitages, an exhibition by Antoni Camarasa bringing together around twenty works inspired by the idea of the hermitage as envisioned through the artist’s imagination. The project explores the hermitage as a symbolic and narrative figure, shaping invented structures made of iron, wood and bronze —often recycled materials— which Camarasa transforms into memory‑laden presences.
The works engage in a dialogue with the historic architecture of the Seminary and invite reflection on tradition, materiality and contemporary notions of spirituality and refuge, highlighting Camarasa’s distinctive poetic vision.
The work of Antoni Camarasa is built upon a sensitive and reflective gaze, where tenderness and humor coexist with a keen observation of the human condition. The artist’s experiences in the rural world have been decisive in shaping a visual universe that distances itself from the noise of the present in order to approach essential and timeless forms of expression.
His visual language, marked by an apparent simplicity, is rooted in a primitivist sensibility revisited from a contemporary perspective. The influence of Jean Dubuffet, whom the artist acknowledges as a reference, is evident in his formal freedom and in a direct relationship with matter, always handled with rigor and coherence.
Irony and satire are recurring elements in his work, used as tools to observe and synthesize human behavior and social dynamics. Through a subtle and personal sense of humor, Camarasa invites serene reflection, translated into images of great visual strength. His artistic practice unfolds through various disciplines and processes, serving an honest and direct expression.
A self-taught artist, he began his professional career in 1989 with an exhibition at Galeria Tom Maddock in Barcelona. Since then, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. His work is part of public and private collections, including the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the Sa Nostra collection in the Balearic Islands, and the Testimoni collection of La Caixa in Barcelona.