JOAN CARDELLS
Valencia, (Spain) 1948- Valencia ,(Spain) 2019

He began his studies at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios and completed his training at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes in Valencia. In the mid-sixties he combined painting in an Expressionist style with the production of posters, which led him to join the Valencia branch of Estampa Popular. In 1966, he and Jorge Ballester created Equipo Realidad, adopting thoroughly Pop aesthetics and formal solutions. This activity continued in 1977.
Working on his own once again, he pursued various lines of experimentation with materials. First he worked with textile fibres as a support for figuration with a political content. Almost in parallel he began working with asbestos cement and cardboard, with which he created sculptural forms in a process connected with industrial mass production and with iconography linked with items salvaged from the urban landscape. This work was first exhibited at the Galería Punto in Valencia in 1979. That year he embarked on a particularly intensive development of drawing with graphite, and this marked out the path for his exploration of two dimensions, which he transferred to suppports such as paper (in large-format works), asbestos cement, marble and cast iron, a material that he used for his series Riñas (Quarrels).
In 1990 the IVAM presented the first retrospective exhibition of his work. His drawings have recently been exhibited at the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales in Montevideo (2000).
He was awarded the Premio Alfons Roig 2000 by the Provincial Delegation of Valencia.