Regina GIMENEZ
Born in Barcelona (Spain), in 1966
Her timeless interior architecture where the human figure appears discreetly emanate a beautiful serenity. Her technique, uniquely recognisable, combines painting with thick-thin, chipped expertly collages and tissue paper that melt into an almost organic matter. Regina GIMENEZ’s work has been recognised with numerous awards, and her European fame is undeniable.
ARTWORKS
EXHIBITIONS & ART FAIRS
VIDÉOS
BIOGRAPHY
Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Barcelona
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
Andorra : Andorre-la-Vieille (Carmen Torrallardona)
Argentina : Buenos Aires (Galeria Palatina)
Belgium : Brussels (Galerie Pierre Hallet)
France : Etretat (Galerie Bruno Delarue) ; L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (La Tour des Cardinaux) ; Metz (Galerie Le Cercle Bleu) ; Paris (Galerie Arcturus, Galerie Bruno Delarue)
Germany: Fribourg (Pro Arte)
Spain : A Coruna (Galerie Ana Vilaseco) ; Artà (Galeria Pepnot) ; Barcelona (Ana Mas Projects, Fundacio Joan Miro, Galeria Miquel Alzueta, The Green Parrot, Galeria Ambit, Galeria Trama, Galeria Sala Parés, Galeria A.C.Rose Selavy, Arno Editions, Espai Volart, Galeria Alejandro Sales) ; Castelló (Galeria Cànem) ; Girona (Galeria Miquel Alzueta, Galerie Cyprus, Sant Feliu de Boada) ; Madrid (Galerie Jorge Alcolea, Galeria Trama, Galeria Jorge Albero) ; Sant Cugat del Vallès (La Galeria) ; Tarragona (Museu d’Art Modern de la Diputacio, Espai 21 Cambrils) ; Terrassa (Centre Cultural Caixa Terrassa) ; Torroella de Montgri (Galerie Michael Dunev) ; Vilafranca del Penedès (Galeria Palma XII)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Andorra : Andorre-la-Vieille (Carmen Torrallardona)
Argentina : General Roca (Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes Juan Sanchez)
France : Avignon (Galerie Ducastel) ; Cahors (Entreprise MAEC) ; Lyon (Galerie Flammarion Bellecour) ; Marseille (Galerie les Arsenaux) ; Paris (Galerie de l’Avant Musée, Galerie Arcturus) ; Sainte-Maxime (Galerie Thibaut)
Italy : Milan (Galerie 32)
Spain : Barcelona (Centre d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Galeria +R, Galeria Senda, Fondation Codespa, La Senta, Galeria Llucia Homs, Galeria Alejandro Pares, Galeria Trama, Galeria Ambit, Galeria Barnadas, Galeria Anne Benach, Galeria Rosa Ventosa, Galeria Pergamon, Galeria Artur Ramon) ; Girona (Galeria Fecit, St Feliu) ; Madrid (Galeria Jorge Alcolea, Galeria Jorge Albero, Caja Madrid ) ; Mataro (Casa Capell) ; Sant Pol de Mar (Museu de pintura) ; Torroella de Montgri (Galerie Michael Dunev)
Switzerland : Anières (Galerie d’Anières)
ART FAIRS
Argentina : ArteBA, Buenos Aires
China : CIGE, Pékin
France : St’Art, Strasbourg (Galerie Arcturus) ; Art Paris (Galerie Arcturus) ; Lille Art Fair (Galerie Arcturus)
South Korea: KIAF, Seoul
Spain : Drawing Room, Madrid ; Arco, Madrid and Barcelona ; ArtExpo, Barcelona ; ArteBA, Madrid ; Biennal de Valls, Tarragona ; Barcelona Gallery Weekend, Barcelona
United Kingdom : London Art Fair ; Scope Art Fair, Londres
United States : International Miami Art Fair, Miami
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
France : Fondation Coprime, Paris ; Collection Isabel Marant, Paris
Spain : MUSAC – Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y León, León; Fundación Vila Casas, Barcelone ; Colección Banco Sabadell ; Museu d’Art Modern. Diputació de Tarragona, Tarragone; Fundación Carmen & Lluís Bassat ; Fundación Banc Sabadell, Barcelone ; Collection Testimoni « La Caixa », Barcelone ; Fundación Privada Vila Casas
United States : Jamestown Group Collection, Atlanta ; Lawrence Benenson, New York
PRIZES
2010 : 1st prize of painting, Biennale of Contemporary Art, Diputación de Tarragona, Tarragona, Spain
2007 : shortlisted Premio Angel de Pintura, Grenada, Spain
2002 : shortlisted Premio Generacion 2002 Grabado Caja Madrid, Madrid, Spain
2001 : 1st prize of Ricard Cami, Caixa de Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain
1999 : Prize of the Fundación Enciclopédia Catalana, Barcelona, Spain ; 2nd FC Barcelona Centenary prize, Spain
1995 : 1st prize of the Young Painting Sala Parès, Barcelona, Spain
1988 : 1st prize of the Young Painting Sala Parès, Barcelona, Spain
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2015 : R. Gimenez, R. Lleo, « L’architecture aujourd’hui », Enric Farrés Duran, Los Cinco Delfines, Barcelona
2012 : R. Gimenez, D. Armengot, « Simbols convencionals », Museu d’Art Modern, Tarragona
2008 : R. Gimenez, D. Torres, A. Hispano, « Regina Gimenez », Galeria Miquel Alzueta, Barcelona
2007 : « Regina Gimenez », Galerie Arcturus, Paris
2006 : R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez, Galeria Trama », Galeria Trama, Barcelona ;
R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez », La GaleRia, San Cugat del Vallès
2005 : R. Gimenez, A. Hispano, « Regina Gimenez, Espai Volart », Fundacio Vila Casas, Barcelona
2003 : R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez, obres recents », Fundacio Caixa Terrassa, Barcelona ;
« Gimenez », Galerie Bruno Delarue, Paris
2002 : X. Grasset, R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez », Galerie Espai 21, Tarragona
2001 : R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez, juliol-agost del 2001 », Cyprus Art, Sant Feliu de Boada ;
M. Lluisa Borràs, « Gimenez », Galerie Bruno Delarue, Paris
2000 : R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez », Galeria Trama, Barcelona
1999 : M.M.Roca, R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez », Galeria Marcart, Girona ;
J.F. Yvars, « Regina Gimenez », Edicions del Bronce, Barcelona
1998 : S. Puertolas, R. Gimenez, « La sombra de una noche », Ed. del Bronce, Barcelona
1996 : J. Cadena, R. Gimenez, « Regina Gimenez », Ambit Galeria d’art, Barcelona
PRESS
WRITINGS
THE FLAKES OF DREAM IN THE FORM OF TIME
Regina Giménez’s work explores the close and ineffable relationship that binds us to our environment. Interior architecture is the expression of our worldview and the form of our thought. We inhabit space as much as it lives within us and shapes our way of thinking.
By choosing to make space the subject of her canvases, Regina Giménez plunges us into the heart of our contradictions, but by doing so through painting, she restores to it what undoubtedly constitutes its inherent power: the ability to visually express what cannot be said, or can only be said with difficulty, in words. There is a dimension in our psyche that transcends the linearity of words; it is the dimension of our consciousness. Consciousness thinks with, in, and through space. Regina Giménez’s canvases reveal our way of thinking about, constructing, and experiencing space. It is these three registers that she manages to contain within the two dimensions of the canvas, and this through her very approach to the materials of painting.
What do we see on these canvases? Sections of walls, interior panels, elements of kitchens or living rooms. Each painted surface represents both a fragment of real space and a layer of another space, ineffable and complex, seemingly composed of planes that are both architectural and mobile. The source of the unease that overwhelms us before these canvases is also the source of their power. These planes seem to detach themselves from one another as if they were elements of an unreal space, a world such as exists in dreams, and not sections of walls in a modern interior. This ambiguity is reflected in the treatment of the painted surfaces.
In a masterful way, she stages the space of some of our dreams, our hopes, and our beliefs, and at the same time, she makes us feel their fragility. She reflects back to us the image of our powerlessness to make them withstand the test of time, but helps us to build the balance that allows us to face it.
By Jean Louis Poitevin, 2007 (translated from French)
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I hadn’t had the opportunity to see Regina Gimenez’s original paintings, although I was fortunate enough, in 1998, to see some of her works reproduced as illustrations in a book. The cover featured a boat, and inside, accompanying the text, were scenes of landscapes and objects that played a role in the illustrated narrative.
It seemed to me that the spirit of these illustrations was to suggest a certain mystery, in a compromise of innocence, of a distant and conscious ingenuousness. There was something very gentle, very poetic about them. These houses, as if cut out and pasted on either side of the wide line of the river, this bicycle leaning against a wall, this lion that, motionless, announced the tavern, this enigmatic abandoned bundle—all of it seemed to tell me that the stories of life are absolutely essential.
This exhibition, as I now know, was preceded by others in which Regina Gimenez’s world centered on open, public spaces: boats, lights, factories—spaces that convey a sense of mystery, of something abandoned and newly rediscovered. The spaces we traverse in the paintings exhibited today are more private: homes and streets in our cities, scenes from our daily lives situated in a place that belongs to a shared history. To a film, too, perhaps, because the isolated women who walk, stop, look, and leave; the windows they reveal themselves through; the lines of the houses into which they disappear—all these evoke the aesthetic of that mythical Frank Lloyd Wright house where the final scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterful “North by Northwest” unfold.
In Regina Gimenez’s collages, the figures are free. Between the crystal of the bay windows and that of the shop windows, they are so fragile that they are free. They have found a fleeting and transparent world. And in this fleetingness, the inescapable presence of time shines through, which moves us. Hours, days, years pass, but the myth of our private, everyday lives continues, and the mystery endures. We are alone, and with our gaze, we construct the house we inhabit, the house we leave behind, the house that others, those who pass by in the street, look at and invent. We may never know what we are doing here. But it is worth reflecting, looking, inventing.
(…) Years after discovering Regina Gimenez’s original work, I reopened the book she illustrated in 1998, entitled “The Shadow of a Night,” of which I am the author. (…) I passed through Regina Gimenez’s spaces, enjoying the beauty that permeates them, the love for all that eludes us daily, the struggle to leave our fragile mark on time, and now I sit like one of those solitary women who inhabit Regina Gimenez’s houses and breathe the poetic air that permeates her paintings.
By Soledad PUERTOLAS (translated from French)
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HOW DO WE RECOGNIZE WHO HAS THE APTITUDE TO BECOME CLASSICAL?
It’s not easy. Horace proposed as a criterion that a work should be appreciated a hundred years after the author’s death—a very effective criterion, but one that doesn’t allow us to predict who is on their way to becoming a classic.
There’s a sense of mastery, ease, coherence, direction, consistency, even insistence, that alerts us to the painter’s quality. We realize that Regina knows what she wants; she searches for it, feels it out, finds it, repeats it, changes it, and continues her exploration in this dense, “material” form of painting where texture is so important—which is why posters and reproductions don’t suit her as well as others—and the colors are nuanced in a range that is clearly her own.
Gimenez manages to achieve a classical style, with the particular circumstance that her painting is romantic. She intends to express—and therefore communicate—emotions and states of mind, or at least impressions, which is already significant in this era of utter disregard for art’s second life, its rebirth—that is to say, its impact—on the viewer’s sensibility. One senses Gimenez’s desire to communicate, and we are grateful for this in the desert of hermeticism, indifference, and even contempt that is contemporary art, where the criterion is “it works,” as if a painting were a diesel engine or a milling machine.
A painting is a subtle vibration of sensibility that penetrates other sensibilities, and if it is revealing, powerful, vital, current, or suggestive, it touches them, illuminates them, excites them, or moves them. Anything that is not like this is a device, a contraption, or an installation, plumbing or carpentry, but is not art.
Gimenez is a Romantic artist because she considers herself an admirer of Caspar David Friedrich, whom she faithfully evokes in the range of her palette and in the subdued, somber light, since it would be impossible for her to replicate him in terms of forms and figures today. It is for this reason that this woman painter interests me, because Friedrich, with his deceptively cold, diaphanous, and crepuscular nature, moves me like few other painters. To find, in our times, a woman endowed with this sensibility is a respite for my stressed senses, sated as they are by the shouts and whispers of the so-called artists of this end of civilization. To express the melancholy of decadence, I prefer a Friedrich twilight scene or something similar.
By Luis Racionero (translated from French)