Júlio Alves
The works in this exhibition are based on the idea that plastic representation is the result of a personal cosmology. The experience of the landscape is the starting point from which the observer's identity is shaped, making the images a script for individual sensitivity and a model for understanding reality. The works are multifaceted perspectives on what is seen but they are also agents of change since observing and thinking about the landscape is also acting on it and as a result they produce something new that did not exist before. The fascination of the work of art is this vision of individuality about the world, unrepeatable, unique and full of symbolism.
watch the video where the author talks about "Ageless in the raw"
The works in "Ageless in the Raw" series started in 2021 and are related to the dynamic quality of the landscape and the perpetuation of its regeneration through a timeless matrix, that exposes to our eyes a vitality that constantly changes everything. Diving into the hyper-reality of an extensive context, results in a lot of information entering our senses, different from what we are used to in everyday life in cities. Living in a clean and lucid state of mind, within a natural landscape, are factors that amplify sensations, providing unique experiences of excruciating clarity, the result is a great activity of the imagination, which for these reasons, runs in many directions, leaving the feeling that there are more things under the sun than one suspects, this is another important point in the “Ageless in the Raw” series - seeing the world as an immense overlap of layers that dynamically mix in an internal osmosis - something that had to do with the raw landscape, where the human frame is missing. The raw state of the landscape highlights this void and the reaction is to fill it with an overvaluation of the dramatic charge, mythical facets that symbolized the action of telluric beings imprisoned in the primordial elements, characters that, although not visible, express themselves in the shadows of tangible things, as it happens in the presence of a certain group of trees along a waterline, the crunch of rocks, dancing flames of a forest fire or the roar of water through the polished stones of streams, simulating whispers and voices - I was interpreting organization and vitality of the natural world as being the result of the intervention of a supra-real entity, beyond reach in the sense of being on another level or in another dimension.
Ageless in the raw
"When you get close to the detail, and to the nuances that define the landscape, the words begin to pop up like pieces of a puzzle, thoughts that are suggested by what is around, and the center point of the whole idea, has to do with what is induced in us, with the notions we receive about the essence of the natural world. This is how the titles of paintings are born, adding words together and hoping they fit somewhere."
The fact of spending more time in a place surrounded by raw nature, in a deserted territory, with almost no population, led me to focus my attention on the surrounding landscape and to dedicate more time to observing the nuances of that mountain scenery, occupied in realizing the vitality of nature and, above all, enjoying the immense variety of colors and shapes, as if I were immersed in a large installation created by giants.
The symbols that interested me in “Ageless in the Raw” were for me the representation of primordial elements such as air, fire, earth and water. Wherever I looked, I found them in several versions and different forms, with an immense plasticity and representing a disturbing and at the same time fascinating fact - everything that existed was composed of basic elements grouped in a certain way that evolved - from In a very simplistic way, this cosmic dynamic defined the motif and contours of my aesthetic interest - the internal pulse of the landscape - it was a scenario that was basically in a process of change, with roots in the distant past and that would possibly remain, even until after the human race disappeared from the face of the Earth. From my point of view, and from what I was able to see, it was fascinating to watch the “metamorphosis of the pseudo-eternal”, which included any plasticity that could be imagined. Despite appearing inert, there was energy pulsing, immobility was an illusion because on another level there was movement and change that represented the action of an organizing agent that had been acting forever and its matrix was impregnated in every particle of that scenario.
Ageless in the raw #7
Mixed media on canvas
400 x 150 cm
Walking the Land
Mixed media on paper
150 x 100 cm
The title “Walking the Land” appeared out of nowhere.
I remember it happened when I was in the studio, trying to solve a painting in a big square canvas,
I thought it had to do with the landscape that was emerging from the background.
The meaning has become crystal clear when I was aware that to represent that type of image, I was synthesizing ideas that in reality did not exist anywhere, they were adaptations of experiences that occurred in different places, which in the composition, came together in an unlikely scenario.
The painting represents a strange piece of land with a paradox in it.
I have no memory of ever setting foot on a land like that, however I feel like it is familiar to me, like a special place that is like a symbol of a total journey.
I like to theorize about the details of the image, about that harsh wind that lifts foam into the air and bends the dry grass. I like to imagine the depth of those turbulent waters. Perhaps with too much detail for a background.
One of those seas that Portuguese sailors learned to fear.
For me, it's the ocean that I'm used to see from the coastline, a companion of all seasons, with so many colors in it.
The layers in the image represent two opposing realities: - in the background the winter sea and in front, the dryness of summer. Everything there is a vortex of light and shadow. The whole thing it's about the strangeness of the landscape, about the way it changes when you look back in memory and realize, that the content has taken on a life of its own.
In most cases, the images represents dubious pieces of land with a paradox in them, the landscapes don't exist the way they are represented, however they seem familiar to me, something special - like a symbol of a total journey, something that has its own identity, and somehow, related to the whole experience of beeing there.
Representing the landscape is a mental synthesis that comes from the way the territory is understood, which largely depends on what is learned in the open space. Dynamic perception tends to organize itself into several layers, related not only on what is seen, but also on what is felt during the time we are moving.
Landscape, a space of experience
"When I started this series of works I was focused on the mythologies of the forest, of how over time pagan beliefs had created stories about the influence of these scattered elements on people's lives. Now I'm interested in the plasticity of the landscape as a manifestation of this energy that permanently readjusts the balances of nature, I'm not exactly looking for a static image that represents a particular scenario, the aspect I try to represent is more transitory, it's the state of change that constantly occurs in front of me.
In my works, the plastic content focuses on the observation of how sites change over time, on the visual expression of how differences occur, on how the concept happens to those who observe the detail. Formally, the paintings are a synthetic expression of several levels of information, but in the first place they result from the transposition of the concept of evolution and change that we observe in the natural world, so the movement and the passage of time in the landscape become the most important aspects of this theme"
Hermitage #8
Mixed media on paper
300 x 140 cm
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"In most cases, the images represents dubious pieces of land with a paradox in them, the landscapes don't exist the way they are represented, however they seem familiar to me, something special - like a symbol of a total journey, something that has its own identity, and somehow, related to the whole experience of beeing there.
Representing the landscape is a mental synthesis that comes from the way the territory is understood, which largely depends on what is learned in the open space. Dynamic perception tends to organize itself into several layers, related not only on what is seen, but also on what is felt during the time we are moving."
Ageless in the raw #7
Mixed media non paper
95 x 140 cm
Traits of similarity
"The paintings do not exist isolated from each other, they exist in a constellation and the proximity between them depends on how they evolve from one to the other. This evolution occurs because normally the common thread from which they are made is not interrupted, finishing a work does not mean that the theme has been exhausted."
"The themes are sets in which there is a continuity of elements that make the bridge from one work to another, they are lines of force that have to do with what one seeks to represent, with the latent impressions of an experience that are parts of a vocabulary, traits of similarity that little by little form a matrix that runs through this entire constellation and will embody each of the themes."
Solitude canyon #5
Mixed media on paper
145 x 100 cm
Surpassed horizon
Mixed media on canvas
200 x 120 cm
Visage of creation
Mixed media on canvas
400 x 150 cm
Maelstrom
Mixed media on paper
95 x 140 cm
"There was a latent energy that I projected through my imagination that would hardly be left out of the painting equation. The challenge was the identity of the landscape, by loading it with a subjective content, it could lose the sharpness of the representation, transforming the nature into a stage of emotions. I was not interested in scrutinizing the contours of this influence, I was interested in following an intuition through fragmentary images of a context, I hoped to extract from this a form of expression with which I could identify."
"One day while walking along the Costa Vicentina I came across a pair of old boots. What caught my attention was the fact that they were very tidy, next to each other, giving the impression that their former owner had highly esteemed them because they had probably been companions on many trips. Their state of degradation was evident and as much goodwill as anyone had, it would be problematic to continue walking with the boots in that state, so they rested there, on the maritime weeps on a promontory with a breathtaking view over the sea. They seemed to me at the time as a living sculpture, an object that was not only connected with the reality of the space around it but also with time, its state of decay was a message about the wanderings of men across the land but also about the the way things age. It occurred to me that this circumstance was a beautiful and remarkable thing."
Find no hurt
Installation view
200 x 200 cm
"It is inevitable that at a certain point the creative process moves away from reality, that is, from the memory that one has of a place, to become a comprehensive concept and thus ceases to be " that place" to become a content that includes the experience of the trip and everything that happened in the surroundings of that experience, each trip has an identity that is reflected in the subjectivity that each image has."
Júlio Alves has produced a diverse set of works that include painting, drawing, installation and sculpture, having participated in several collective and individual exhibitions. It was during the last decade that he has developed the theme of the landscape that is still the core of his work. The landscape in his work is more than a simple incursion into natural space, is built as a metaphor of man's relationship to the cosmos itself and refers to a mythical geography that takes place as a cosmology. Based on the notion that man builds the world the same way the world builds the man, his work is based on the perception of a reality which confront the objectivity of knowledge with the inability to explain all that is going on around us. This uncertain space loaded in each image, impels man to define scenarios and possibilities that give the illusion of being in the center of the world. So the images are not made from the reality and objective truth but also refer to the imaginary mythical projections. The creation of a landscape vocabulary is based on a number of trips undertaken in recent years This experience fueled his thematic approach and gave him ideas for further development on nature as a cultural reality, considering that the way to understand it does not happen independently of the cultural context of the observer. Graduated in architecture by FA Lisbon. Studies in National Society of Fine Arts of Lisbon. Founder of the intervention artistic group RIP 1981. Founder of the MARCA Group with thirty years of activity in the area of architecture and design. Individual exhibitions 2020 - Exhibition at Maap studio "Elements in a Status Change" 2019 - Exhibition Galeria Orlando Morais, Ericeira, "Estado de Divergência" 2018 .- Exhibition Galeria Project Room na Cidadela Art District em Cascais, "Paradox of Real Expectations"; 2016 - Exhibition Centro Cultural Palácio do Egipto , Oeiras, Vivificatur project; 2014 - Exhibition at Maap studio "Pulsar" and "Opus Circulatorium" projects; 2013 - Exhibition in Galeria Aberta, Beja, Projects: "Anger From Ashes"; 2012 - Maap studio _-Residency program in São Vicente fortress, Sagres and subsequent exhibition; 2011 - Exhibition at Maap studio, Project: "Great cruise"; 2010 - Exhibition at the Fortaleza de Santiago Sesimbra -Exhibition at Maap studio "Eagle vision"; 2009 - Exhibition na Galeria Costa do Sol, Almada; 2008 -Exhibition at the Fortaleza de Santiago Sesimbra; 2004 - Exhibition at Palácio Anjos in Algés; 1988 - Illustration work for "Contraste" magazine, Photography exhibition with catalog editing in Cascais; 1987 - Public Presentation of Utopian architectural project "Cascais XXI century"; 1986 - Palace of Egypt in Oeiras; 1985 - University of Coimbra - RIP project -Exhibition in the Faculdade de Letras, Lisbon;
Júlio Alves, 2024
Júlio Alves has produced a diverse set of works that include painting, drawing, installation and sculpture, having participated in several collective and individual exhibitions. It was during the last decade that he has developed the theme of the landscape that is still the core of his work. The landscape in his work is more than a simple incursion into natural space, is built as a metaphor of man's relationship to the cosmos itself and refers to a mythical geography that takes place as a cosmology. Based on the notion that man builds the world the same way the world builds the man, his work is based on the perception of a reality which confront the objectivity of knowledge with the inability to explain all that is going on around us. This uncertain space loaded in each image, impels man to define scenarios and possibilities that give the illusion of being in the center of the world. So the images are not made from the reality and objective truth but also refer to the imaginary mythical projections. The creation of a landscape vocabulary is based on a number of trips undertaken in recent years This experience fueled his thematic approach and gave him ideas for further development on nature as a cultural reality, considering that the way to understand it does not happen independently of the cultural context of the observer. Graduated in architecture by FA Lisbon. Studies in National Society of Fine Arts of Lisbon. Founder of the intervention artistic group RIP 1981. Founder of the MARCA Group with thirty years of activity in the area of architecture and design. Individual exhibitions 2020 - Exhibition at Maap studio "Elements in a Status Change" 2019 - Exhibition Galeria Orlando Morais, Ericeira, "Estado de Divergência" 2018 .- Exhibition Galeria Project Room na Cidadela Art District em Cascais, "Paradox of Real Expectations"; 2016 - Exhibition Centro Cultural Palácio do Egipto , Oeiras, Vivificatur project; 2014 - Exhibition at Maap studio "Pulsar" and "Opus Circulatorium" projects; 2013 - Exhibition in Galeria Aberta, Beja, Projects: "Anger From Ashes"; 2012 - Maap studio _-Residency program in São Vicente fortress, Sagres and subsequent exhibition; 2011 - Exhibition at Maap studio, Project: "Great cruise"; 2010 - Exhibition at the Fortaleza de Santiago Sesimbra -Exhibition at Maap studio "Eagle vision"; 2009 - Exhibition na Galeria Costa do Sol, Almada; 2008 -Exhibition at the Fortaleza de Santiago Sesimbra; 2004 - Exhibition at Palácio Anjos in Algés; 1988 - Illustration work for "Contraste" magazine, Photography exhibition with catalog editing in Cascais; 1987 - Public Presentation of Utopian architectural project "Cascais XXI century"; 1986 - Palace of Egypt in Oeiras; 1985 - University of Coimbra - RIP project -Exhibition in the Faculdade de Letras, Lisbon;