Une documentation complète sur une exposition singulière en même temps qu'un vaste aperçu de la pratique de l'artiste vénézuélien qui explore depuis trois décennies les thèmes de la mémoire, de la perception et de la nature changeante de l'héritage visuel.
This two-sided volume offers an immersive journey into Juan Araujo's artistic practice, serving both as a record of his exhibition at Palazzo Massimo and as a monograph on his most significant works of recent years. More than a mere catalog, it is a reflection on Araujo's ongoing dialogue with art history, architecture, and cultural memory—an exploration of how images endure, transform, and accumulate meaning over time.
Through critical essays by Inês Grosso, Giulio Figarolo di Gropello, Luis Pérez-Oramas and Stéphane Verger, alongside an in-depth conversation between Araujo and Bárbara Rodríguez Muñoz, the book delves into the artist's meticulous process of appropriation and reinterpretation. Richly illustrated, it captures his ability to bridge past and present, making visible the layers of time embedded in art and architecture.
Spanning centuries of artistic heritage, from early Hellenistic art to the expressive gestures of Cy Twombly, Araujo's practice transcends time, weaving an intricate web of references that trace the echoes of history within contemporary visual language. His work is an exploration of interwoven cultural patterns, where the act of painting becomes a means of reactivating and recontextualizing artistic traditions.
The structure of the book itself mirrors Araujo's philosophy: a play of opposites, where the material and the immaterial, the ephemeral and the eternal, continuously intersect. As he states, "My paintings are a constant dialogue between the visible and the invisible, where color becomes a visual metaphor for that which transcends the tangible."
Blending critical discourse with striking visual documentation, this volume is both a tribute to a singular exhibition and a testament to Juan Araujo's enduring exploration of memory, perception, and the shifting nature of visual heritage.
Juan Araujo est né en 1971 à Caracas, au Venezuela. Il mène, depuis la fin des années 1990, une recherche extensive et très personnelle sur l'histoire de la culture occidentale, l'histoire de l'art et le modernisme en réalisant des peintures hyperréalistes à partir d'images trouvées dans des documents imprimés ou en ligne.
