ANGEL VERGARA E, 1959

Angel Vergara
Belle Femme au miroir, 2007
Videoprojection, pencil on canvas

Also check out info and images in the category "exhibitions" and click on "past".


Angel Vergara
and the art of being nomad

Angel Vergara starts from everyday life and redirects the art back to it. Between art and life a perfect, though incomplete cross-breeding takes place. Exactly in this gap Vergara poses playful and sharp questions about the world and the world of art. The modest shops opened by the Brussels artist are not merely a décor. During a certain time they really function as businesses. Time and place are also accurately indicated within the paintings. This doesn't mean however they would be boundened in space and time. This art is nomad. Angel Vergara lives and works everywhere.

For this way of being nomad Vergara has found an excellent solution. Covered with a white canvas, as a portable studio, he draws and paints in the midst of street life. Sometimes he stretches this canvas afterwards as an exhibition space for the little paintings. Angel Vergara, born in 1958 in Mieres in Spain, grew up in the poor districts of Brussels. His art is nourished with the common, the poor as well, but above all with everyday life. Herefore the street provides an excellent working space. In some of the works Vergara appears as 'Straatman', 'L'homme des rues' (Streetman), for example as a vendor under the white sheet. The elitarist isolation, so cherished by the arts, is broken. The seclusion of the studio, to cultivate the own individuality, is being sidestepped. By the middle of the eighties he often walked with his paintings mounted on a stick into exhibition openings. It seemed a peaceful protest march in the margin of the official art scene. Meanwhile his paintings appear in the galleries and his actions go abroad, till in Japan.

Under a white canvas Angel Vergara sets himself in the centre of life but remains protected in a subtile way as well. Painting seems to be a public performance, but it is done in all anonymity and seclusion. In this way he somehow meets the romanticism of wandering painters of the 19th century. The primitive hiding place looks a bit like a tent, but also reminds one of a ghost or an angel, the messenger - Angel. The entire symbolic of the veil is put into it. It refers to the black canvas of the photographers and is above all an instrument to register reality. However there is no objective registration. The painter himself appears strangely in the image of the city, almost like a living sculpture, although he's not a work of art himself. It's about a reflection on the art of painting: the painter is litterally within the white canvas. In this studio he can withdraw into himself. The artist likes to compare his art of working with Courbet, the pioneer of realism and social consciousness within the visual arts, who presented all stratums in his studio.

Logbooks
With the sheet as a filter, that lets through a very beautiful light, the perception of the world becomes a mental experience. Time is experienced in a direct manner. Exact time indications are continuously noted on the paintings. They are an accumulation of time, time that transfers the little events to a more universal context. In fact Angel Vergara practises a documentary, descriptive art of painting. The graphic notes are like a topography of a certain place within a certain time span. It is as if they form a logbook, of which the notes in the studio sometimes are shifted to large paintings. At first sight these are chaotic compositions, hard to decipher, with a network of lines, contours of objects, names, hours and minutes written down... Sometimes the silhouet of the artist is indicated. He doesn't work from a frontal point of view, but from the centre. He encounters everything - even the most futile and apparently insignificant: movements, noises, smells, perceptions, thoughts and memories...

Shops
Angel Vergara always studies exchanges of time and space and creates places that are connected with all sorts of exchanges. He opens cafés, a grocery, an ice-cream parlour, an exchange office... the least you can say is that they have to do with economic transactions, but in the café it is also about the exchange of words, the conversation and the social contacts. The interior never looks exclusive, but somehow retro and used. It looks as if it has always been there. The space already existed and was mostly used as a space for arts. In the Belgian House of Cologne he installed a 'Supermarket of the Year', where only apples with all their libidinous symbolics were for sale. It looks a bit like a brutal expropriation, that criticizes commercial tendencies within the visual arts. Guillaume Bijl also transformed galleries into another business. Angel Vergara however goes beyond the trompe-l'oeil effect. The interventions are what they pretend to be. This makes them even more critic. The viewer is integrated and has to react as such. The setting determines the atmosphere, but at the same time everything moves. Without the viewer as an active participant this art cannot exist. He can effectively consume and finds the prices on large, painted boards. In the Café de la Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels the prices of the drinks were indicated under the heading 'consumption'. As it is part of the art world, collectors and art lovers are also present. Art is indeed a commercial good and has a price. The amount of money indicated under the heading 'exchange' offered a small bill with the mentioning of the time that the visitor had spent in the café. 'The story' mentioned the price of a drawing. The use of certificates is common in conceptual art, but after all every business works with invoices.

Total art
The artist doesn't explicitly present himself as an artist, but offers or organises all kinds of activities. Or he makes notes and drawings that enrich later works. It is a place for experiments without a fixed statute. Also the statute of art is questioned here. The transformations can be read as a performance of a certain duration, an adventure, of which the process remains open. They also can be interpreted as a 'tableau vivant', where everyone more or less consciously participates. A phenomenological approach of reality is started off. The interventions work into the consciousness and can stir up a new sensibility for the everyday. The critical questionings contains all aspects of life: economics, politics and aesthetics. Angel Vergara joins the tradition of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk' and the spirit of Fluxus. An exposition goes also beyond the limits of its space. Last year an entire city, Revin (F), functioned as an exhibition space. The artist introduced a new currency, 'les Nanards', which was valuable everywhere. On the notes was a photograph of a local undertaker, the president of a local organisation of undertakers. A highly esteemed value, so-to-say, but a very local one. Here art was explicitely equated with money. It was about real money, that at the same time differs from usual money and therefore creates a new relationship. The art also interacts continuously with its environment. The 'Chapellerie Haute' was an imaginary but real branch of a lovely old-fashioned hat store in the Brussels' Hoogstraat. You could buy a hat or a hat with a newspaper. The artist made a drawing in it on the place and during the time that went together with the hat.

La condition humaine
Newspapers and magazines are popular data carriers. Last year Angel Vergara edited a catalogue with all his realisations in the format of a 'revue-magazine', that he calls an 'objet de collection'. Nowadays art hardly has repercussions on daily reality. Angel Vergara sharpens social consciousness. He grafts art onto the everyday and shakens it up thoroughly. The exhibition in the gallery of Sint-Lucas in Brussels is also at the service of the neighbourhood. It is spreat all over the city and maybe even further away. A glass business is installed, an office and a show room with painted windows, where you can order the window of your choice. Then the artist comes over to execute the painting. This store is called 'La condition humaine', like the paintings of Magritte with a painter's easel in front of a window. What the painting represents exactly coincides with the window view. Inside and outside become exchangable, but for all the confusion between reality and presentation is driven to extremes. Around this confusion the work of Angel Vergara also moves. He tries to approach the reality as close as possible, but at the same time he shakens it.

Text by Christine Vueghen

For final updates on artist's cv please mail stella@stellalohausgallery.com

Born in Mieres (E) in 1959.
Lives and works in Brussels (B)


SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010
“Monday: Firework; Tuesday: Illuminations; Wednesday: Revolution”, Argos Centre for Art and Media, Brussels (B) (24.04.10 – 19.06.10)
Solo Projects, ARCOmadrid_2010, Stella Lohaus Gallery, Madrid, Spain (17.2.10 - 21.2.10)

2009
“Angel Vergara. Nous, les oeuvres d’art…”, Etablissement d’en face projects, Brussels (B) (07.06.09 - …)

2008
Art Premiere, Art Basel (with Joëlle Tuerlinckx), Stella Lohaus Gallery (june)

2007
EACC, l’espai d’art contemporani de Castelló, (ESP)
“Straatman’s Happy entry into Brussels”, Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp (B) (25.01.07 – 10.03.07)
‘’Portraits’’, MAC’s Grand Hornu, Hornu (B) (18.02.07 – 06.05.07)

2006
“Actes et Tableaux – Retransmissions –”, MAC’s, Grand-Hornu (B)
"El Callajero", Cultureel Centrum Strombeek-Bever (B)
"The straatman's contract", BLAC Bruxelles (B) (Performance 1: 18.03.06 - Performance 2: 22.04.06 - Performance 1: 03.05.06)

2005
‘’Angel Vergara, We the art works’’, Performance. Halles de Schaerbeek, Bruxelles ( B) Duplacena, Lisboa (PT)
‘’Angel Vergara, Peinture radiophonique n°1 (57’40 )’’, performance. Familie Van Tendeloo, Toekomststraat 39, Kortrijk (B) (02.12.05)

2004
"Our life is our territory", Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp (B)
Domaine de Kerguehennec (avec Michel Francois), Kerguehennec/Bignan – Centre d’Art contemporain (F) (07.07.04 – 20.09.04)

2003
"Comment liberer les artistes libres ?", Fri-Art, Fribourg (CH)

2002
"EXHIBITION", Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp
"Straatman Opera", W139, Amsterdam (NL)

2001
"Straatman Cometh", MUHKA, Antwerpen
"Straatman Opera, L'Aniversaire de Spinoza", Vereniging voor tentoonstellingen van het Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussel

2000
"Public Art", Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp

1999
Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerpen
La Hora de Todos, Arco, Vera van Laer Gallery, Madrid (E)

1998
Walking Voice, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (D)
Consulting Yourself, Galerie Rainer Borgemeister, Berlin (D)

1997
Sala del Ano, Encore Bruxelles, Brussel
Faire Oeuvre, College Scamaroni, Charleville (F)
15th Art Brussel, foir d’art actuel, Vera Van Laer Gallery, Brussel
Contrebande ‘97, Revin (F)

1996
L’heure de Tous, FRAC Metz (F)
Fonteyne en Paradijs, Vera van Laer, Antwerpen
Haus of Prints, Antwerpen
Miroiterie de l’Année, Galerie Sint-Lukas, Brussel

1995
Supermarché de l’Année, Belgisches Haus, Köln (D)
Le Chahut, Centre de’Art Nicolas de Stael, Braine-l’Alleud
Brussels Tours, BOXX, Vereniging PBA/PSK, Brussel
Cambio del Ano, Revin (F)

1994
Le Bar d’en Face, Etablissement d’en Face, Brussel
Chapellerie Haute, Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussel

1993
Salon Public, Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste, Calais (F)

1992
Café de la Galerie des Beaux-Arts Galerij, Galerie de Beaux-Arts Galerij, Brussel

1991
Maison Bonne Espérance, Espace Nord 251, Liège
Gelateria del Ano, Galerie von der Milwe, Aachen

1990
Café del Ano, Galerie Inexistent, Antwerpen

1988
Galerie Chris Delaet, Antwerpen


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2010
“Nieuwe Monumenten” (met oa. Jan De Cock, Sven ‘t Jolle, Nadia Naveau, Johan Muyle, Wesley Meuris), Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp, Belgium (23.05.2010 - 19.09.2010)
"Works on paper" (John Bock, Kati Heck, Dennis Tyfus, Angel Vergara), Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium (11.03.2010-11.04.2010)
“The First Mediterranean Biennial of Contemporary Art” (Curated by Belu-Simion Fainaru), Haifa, Israel (19.02.2010 - 20.04.2010)
“Departement des Coqs” (Jacques Charlier, Eric Duyckaerts, Olivier Foulon, Jacques Lizène, Capitaine Lonchamps, Emilio Lopez Menchero, Sylvie Macias Diaz, Benjamin Monti, Benoît Roussel, Raphaël Van Lerberghe, Angel Vergara, Marie Zolamian), De Warande, Tunhout,(B) (31.01.2010 - 23.03.2010)

2009
“Into the light’, video en lichtinstallaties Antwerpen zuid, Belgium, (02-12-2009 12-12-2009)
“Jeugdzonde. Over opus één en opus min één” (curated by Ulrike Lindmayr), Hedah, Maastricht (NL) (06.09.09 – 03.10.09)
“In-finitum” (o.a. Fischli & Weiss, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Yves Klein, Gerard Richter, Mark Rothko)(Curated by Axel Vervoordt), Palazzo Fortuny, Venezia (I) (06.06.09 – 15.11.09)
"May & June” (Jan De Cock, Rupert Norfolk, Job Koelewijn, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, John Bock, Sven ‘t Jolle, Erik Van Lieshout, Angel Vergara), Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp (B) (07.05.2009 – 27.06.2009)
“Jeugdzonde. Over opus één en opus min één”, LLS 387 Ruimte voor actuele kunst vzw – Antwerp (B) (19.03.09 - 30.05.09)
Permanent intervention: Façade Pianofabriek, Fortstraat 35 – Brussels (B)

2008
‘Hello’ (oa. DAG, Thomas Hauser, Claude Horstmann, Alfred Jansen, Ronald B. Kitaj, Marcus Weber, Ina Weber,…), Laura Mars GPR, Berlin (D) (2.12.2008 - 20.12.2008 / 5.01.2009 – 31.01.2009)
‘Amusez Lambeaux’ (o.a . Hiro Saika, Catherine Scaillet, Martine Seguy, André Stas, PV, Jean-François Thys, Pierre Thoma, Michel Thuns, Martine Vanhoutte, Bern Wéry), Maison du Peuple, Bruxelles - Saint-Gilles (B). (01.12.08 - 21.12.08)
‘Não te posse ver nem pintado’, Fundation Bernardo Lisboa – Lisboa (P). (15.09.08 – 01.09)
“Honorons Honoré” (a.o. Tom Liekens, Annick Lizein, Bernd Lohaus, Ruth Loos, Emilio Lopez-Menchero, Erwan Mahéo, Jean-Luc Moerman), De Garage, ruimte voor actuele kunst, Mechelen (B) (27.09.2008 - 23.11.2008)
“Corpus Delicti” (o.a. Guillaume Bijl, Michel Couturier, Berlinde De Bruyckere, Thierry De Cordier, Mrs. Delmote, Wim Delvoye, Jan Fabre, Chantal Maes), Justitiepaleis, Brussel (B) (25.09.2008 - 21.11.2008)
“Don’t worry be curious!”, Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg (L) (12.07.08 - 17.09.08)
‘’Zerbrechliche Schönheit. Glas im Blick der Kunst’’, (C. : Beat Wismer), Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf ( D) (19.04.08 - 31.08.08)
‘’Die Hände der Kunst’’ (C.: Ronny Van de Velde), MARTa Herford, Hertford (D) (26.03.08 - 27.07.08)
“Kunstschatten uit Wallonië van vroeger en nu. Dat verrassende land”, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussel (B) (13.02.08 – 18.05.08)
“le dessin éveillé I”, La Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, Amiens (F) (07.02.08 – 20.06.08)

2007
“Four 4 One”, Boekentoren, Gent (B) (20.10.07 – 04.11.07)
“La Ricarda”, IKOB, Eupen (B) (28.10.07-13.01.08)
‘’En het woord is beeld geworden’’, Cultureel Centrum De Bogaard en Begijnhof, Sint-Truiden ( B). ( / - 17.06.07)
‘’La Ricarda’, Aux Moulins Albigeois - Laboratoire Artistique International du Tarn (LAIT), Albi & Castres, Albi ( F) (17.04.07 - 29.04.07)
‘’Hors genres’’, Forum de l’Image, Toulouse ( F) (17.04.07 - 29.04.07)
“Die Geschichte Wiederholt Sich Nicht!”, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld (D) (12.01.07 – 11.03.07)

2006
‘’Artactivisme’’, Centre culturel Jacques, Bruxelles (B)
‘’4 statements’’ : Florian Dietrich, Philip Loersch, Daragh Reeves, Angel Vergara, Galerie Ursula Walbröl, Düsseldorf ( D) (02.09.06 - 14.10.06)
"Drawings, watercolours, atlases, works on paper, etc. by Bjarne Melgaard, Sven ‘T Jolle, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Erik Van Lieshout and Agel Vergara", Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerp (B) (27.04.06 – 24.06.06)
‘’Anagramme’’, Histoire ré-écrite de la collection du Mac’s. Musée des Arts contemporains de la Communauté française, Grand-Hornu (B) (29.01.06 - 07.05.06)

2005
“Artgames. Analogien zwischen Kunst und Spiel”, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany (cat.) (17.12.05 – 05.03.06)
"Le jeune, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui – episode 1/3", Maison Populaire / Centre d’art Mira Phalaina, Montreuil, France (cat.) (15.10.05 – 17.12.05)
"Le jeune, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui – episode 2/3", Maison Populaire / Centre d’art Mira Phalaina, Montreuil, France (cat.) ( 16.04.05 – 02.07.05)
‘’Voisins officiels’’. Musée d’Art moderne, Villeneuve d’Ascq (F) ( 04.03.05 - 01.07.05)
Lancement de "La Plate-forme des Arts contemporains". (15.01.05)
"Le jeune, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui – episode 1/3", Maison Populaire / Centre d’art Mira Phalaina, Montreuil, France (cat.) (08.01.05 – 02.04.05)

2004
"Amicalement votre", Lille (Lille cultural capital of Europe) (F) (march)
‘’City Sonic’’. Mons (B) ‘’Love is in the air’’. (C. : Marie-Puck Broodthaers). Matrix art project, Bruxelles (B) ‘’La creación de la Guerra de los Balcanes’’, el juego. MediaLab, Madrid (ES) (11.02.04 - 14.02.04)

2003
"Once upon a time… Belgian art between 1992-2002 (selected by Guillaume Bijl), Muhka, Antwerp (B) (21.12.03 – 29.02.03)
"Je me souviens", CPAS, Bruxelles (B) (24.10.03 – 28.11.03)
"De Collectie – herfst 2003" , MUHKA, Antwerpen (B) (04.10.03 – 16.11.03)
"Still/Move" (David Claerbout, Dany Deprez, Stan Douglas, Hans Op De Beeck, Angel Vergara), Caermersklooster, Gent (B) (04.10.03 – 30.11.03)
"Gelijk het Leven is", SMAK, Gent ‘’Sense & Nonsense’’. (C. : Gerry Smith). Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London (GB) (12.09.03 - 26.10.03)
‘’Sculptures Installations’’. Sammlung / Collection de la Communauté française de Belgique, 1993-1998. IKOB, Eupen (B) (30.08.03 - 19.10.03)
‘’Gallery under construction’’. Stella Lohaus Gallery, Antwerpen(B) (17.04.03 - 26.05.03)

2002
W139, Amsterdam

2001
"Alchemie de la Rencontre", Frac Champagne-Ardenne, Reim (F)

2000
"Voici / kijk" Curated by Thierry De Duve, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Bruxelles
"Clinckx, Janssens, Delvoye, Luyten, Vergara" Art Academy, San Francisco (USA)
"Europalia-Bruxelles 2000: Kruispunt van Culturen", Palais des Beaux Arts, Bruxelles
"As it is", Straatman Loterie, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (GB) (july)
"Biennale de Louvain-La-Neuve", (curator: Philippe Braem), Louvain-La-Neuve (may)
“Over the Edges” , Meeting Point (curator: Jan Hoet), Ghent (april-june)

1999
"Indoor", Contemporary Art Museum Lyon (F)

1998
"Indoors, La Cucina della Casa per l’arte e la Revoluzione Contemporanea", Centro Civico de l’arte Contemporanea (Zerynthia Foundation), Serre di Rapolano (I)

1997
Who Loves Brussels, Encore, Brussel
Radio del Ano, Pica en Flandes, Flemmish Community project, On Line and Vera Van Laer Gallery, Escuola Masana Barcelona (E)
"Fetishimage", Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam
"Vous êtes Ici", Brussel
"Structures", Musée d’Art Moderne, Liège
"Magritte en Compâgnie, Du bon usage de l’irrévérence", Centre culturel de la Communauté française Le Botanique, Brussel
Musée d’Ixelles, Brussel
"Dialogues de l’ombre", Fondation Electricité de France – Espace Electra, Paris (F)
Atelier d’artistes de la ville de Marseille, Marseille (F)
"Genuine Fiction (the real thing)", W139, Amsterdam (NL)

1996
Galerie Toxic, Luxembourg
Casino Luxembourg, Luxembourg
"Actions Urbaine", FRAC. Lorraine, Metz (F)
"Casus Belli", Kunst in de haven, Antwerpen

1995
"Maisons Cerveaux", FRAC Reims, Ferme Dubuisson, Marne la Vallé (F)
"Géométrie Sacrée", Galerie des Beaux-Arts Galerij, Brussel
"Ripple Across the Water", Ripple Bar, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (curator: Jan Hoet)

1993
Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Charleroi, Charleroi
"Transfer", Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen (D)
"Le choix de Bruxelles", Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussel

1992
"Echec", Gallery des Beaux-Arts Galerij, Brussel
"Transfer", Alimentation Générale, Gent
"Transfer", Goethe-Instituut, Brussel
Documenta IX, Straatman Performance, Kassel (D)
"Woord en Beeld in de Belgische Kunst. Van A tot Z", MUHKA, Antwerpen

1991
"Basserode, François, Janssens, Vergara", Galerie des Beaux-Arts Galerij, Brussel