"I love the ambiguity, the multiplicity of readings.. The paintings can transmit tension either through the characters, the landscape, the colours, or that which is absent."
— Jordi Ribes
Born in Barcelona in 1972, Jordi Ribes’ narrative-focused paintings transport viewers into the world of childhood, a space rich in dreams, adventure, and mystery. Celebrated for blurring the lines between pictorial and digital expression, Ribes composes his works using oil paint, a medium characterised by its malleability. Curiously, however, his unconventional approach to the medium renders it almost artificially polished, as Ribes meticulously applies very thin layers of carefully mixed pigment to achieve an impeccable smoothness of gradients. When combined with his adoption of a fluorescent colour palette inspired by video games, fantasy films and fairy tales, the overall effect evokes the radiating glow of screens, activating a game of contrasts between the real and the fictitious, and the familiar and the unknown.
“On the one hand, my work looks like an image from a computer, with a cold and neutral finish that apparently does not exploit the properties of oils, while, on the other hand, it is a painting that can only be done with the oil technique.”
— Jordi Ribes
Painted in 2010, in Amazing Stories, a lone female figure wades through a silvery body of water framed by tall, bamboo-like cylinders. With her back to the viewer, she approaches a red-orange object partially covered by candy-coloured patches that cascade down from the pointed top, skimming the water’s edge. Though ambiguous in from, the large structure is decorated with two, dark, window-shaped rectangles, which when considered in conjunction with the helmet the protagonist holds under her arm, alludes to ideas concerning extra-terrestrial travel and spacecrafts. Perhaps also influenced by Steven Spielberg’s 1985-1987 science fiction television series of the same name, Amazing Stories exemplifies Ribes’ ability to tap into both digital and analogue worlds to produce mystical compositions that drive the mind’s eye, leaving viewers to wander about the next chapter to unfold in this unfinished story.
Represented by L21 Gallery, Ribes has been the subject of solo exhibitons at Galería Senda in Barcelona and L21 in Palma, as well as group exhibitions at places including Palais de Tokyo in Paris; Galería Lelong in Paris; Galería Oliva Arauna in Madrid; and Centre d'Art Tecla Sala in Barcelona. His work forms part of collections such as Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (Madrid); Fundación Altadis (Madrid); and Fundación Vila Casas (Barcelona).