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| Biography: |
Sculptor and painter. Son of the writer Alfredo Armas Alfonzo, National Prize of Literature 1969, and the esmalltista Aída Arms. He starts his exhibition activity as a sculptor in 1973, at the 16 years. In that first exhibition (Sala Ocre, Caracas), his pieces seemed, according to Juan Calzadilla, more open "to material expressiveness, rather than to the virtuosity of form" (1973). In 1977 he receives the Acquavella Pepino Award in the V National Youth Salon of Caracas. Around this time he studied at Cegra with professors such as Manuel Espinoza and Alirio Palacios. At 1978 he receives a scholarship from the French government and travels to Paris, studies sculpture and engraving at the School of Decorative Arts of Nice (1978-1980), at the School of Fine Arts in Paris and, later, graphic arts in Paris. Superior School of Decorative Arts. At the same time he is doing internships at the School of Fine Arts in Paris with the sculptor Étienne Martin, one of his most influential teachers. In 1981 he returns to Venezuela and studies at the Neumann Institute, until 1983, when he resumes his studies at Cegra, to graduate at 1984. The work of this versatile plastic artist is based on the technical freedom of languages and genres, and the breakdown of styles. Thus, two tendencies can be denoted in the development of his sculptural work: on the one hand, in the seventies, he realizes basically figurative works, through the cast in bronze, where the representations of horses and human beings are predominant.
After his stay in France, he turns towards abstraction, works with works made mainly with metal, iron and aluminum rods that bend and twist, until composing a network of lines that create three-dimensional drawings in space. Federica Palomero wrote of his work at this time: "the informalist nature of work is imposed: the process of breaking down the naked and resistant matter comes to constitute the work itself, marked by the violence of physical effort. as its density [...] In the course of the decade [of the eighties], the bars are acquiring certain order and calm "(1997). In an interview with Carlos Cruz-Diez at 1985, Enrico Armas describes these works as "concentrations": transparent volumes that are also mass. An example of these pieces is the Monument to iron (700 x 180 cm), with which wins the contest for a monumental piece of Fundametal (Valencia, Edo Carabobo, 1983). In 1989 he returns to figuration with the modeling technique in wax or clay, and his subsequent casting in bronze. In 1990 gathers more than 30 horses made between 1989 and 1990 in the exhibition "Horses of bronze" (Gallery One, Caracas). His creations do not have fixed dimensions, although between the figurative and the abstract, there is a greater development of works of small and medium format over large format ones. He participates repeatedly in the Arturo Michelena Hall, where he is awarded three times. In the international arena he has participated in group exhibitions in France, Hungary, Colombia, the United States, India and Spain. As a graphic artist he has made lithographs and serigraphs that he has included in many of his exhibitions. He has also ventured into ephemeral art, such as the installation for the San Carlos Borromeo Castle (Pampatar, Edo. Nueva Esparta, 1984), whose interest lies in the usual materials of the area (sand, wood, boat remains, seashells, etc.), which relate to the viewer in a space different from the everyday. In 1992 he presents his first individual paintings in the Arte Hoy Gallery in Caracas. According to Juan Carlos Palenzuela, the artist, in painting, as in sculpture, "passes indistinctly from abstract art to figurative art and vice versa" (1992). Armas works with oil and acrylic on canvas, sometimes incorporating collage. Palenzuela adds: "the active space continues to be the theme of Armas" (op.cit.). On the occasion of an exhibition by 1998, "From color to intimacy", Palenzuela describes the evolution of the artist in this genre: "surely, Enrico Armas looks, among other aspects, for a polyphony of color. transparent, as I remember those of 1992, but now they are compact, abrasive, with short lights that are like sparks, textural color, in a few ranges and from there in different registers ... Painting of a saturated space, yellows that they overlap the force of color, fillings that reach the eyes and in the middle of all this, figures-trees, bottles, horses-as persistence of the image, of the imaginative, of the festive in the middle of the fire "(1998 ). Armas has transcended the traditional spaces dedicated to art, museums or galleries, carrying out works of varied dimensions to be exposed to the outdoors in different public places, inside and outside the country. In February 1999 presented the exhibition "With sequences" (Gallery Braulio Salazar), more than 50 works that cover all stages and styles as an artist. In 2001 he represented Venezuela in the Cagnes-sur-Mer Festival (France). Armas has transcended the traditional spaces dedicated to art, museums or galleries, carrying out works of varied dimensions to be exposed to the outdoors in different public places, inside and outside the country. It has been represented in the following collections Ministry of Culture, Caracas National Art Gallery, Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art in Caracas Museum of Fine Arts of Caracas, Caracas Arturo Michelena Museum, Caracas Jacobo Borges Museum, Caracas Museum of the Print and Design "Carlos Cruz Diez", Caracas Alejandro Otero Museum, Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art of Zulia MACZUL, Maracaibo Baconao Park, Santiago de Cuba Fundarte, Caracas National Council of Culture_ CONAC, Caracas Athenaeum of Valencia Fundametal, Valencia Cisneros Foundation, Caracas Metro de Caracas, Chacao Station, Caracas Sidor, Puerto Ordaz Mavesa, Caracas IVIC, Headquarters Los Teques, Miranda State General Superintendence of Banks, Caracas Wifredo Lam Center, Cuba UNESCO, Caracas TAGA, Caracas Cartons of Venezuela University of Carabobo, Valencia University of the Andes, Mérida House of Culture of La Asunción, Nueva Esparta State Fine Arts Center of Maracaibo, Maracaibo Zulia State Art Center of Maracaibo "Lia Bermúdez", Maracaibo Ateneo de Montalbán, Montalbán, Carabobo State Municipal Art Gallery of Punto Fijo, Falcón State Municipal Gallery of Modern Art of Puerto La Cruz, Puerto La Cruz Edo. Anzoátegui |
| English speaker: | No |
| Participation Date: | March 22 2018 |