Gerard Mas: Everything In Its Place

SARCOPHAGUS 2018, polychrome red cedar wood, 168 x 46 x 28 cm

Spanish artist Gerard Mas uses marble, alabaster, wood and resin to create unique sculptures that blend anachronism and subtle irony. Gerard Mas was born in 1976 in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Girona, Spain and studied at the ‘Llotja’ art school, in Barcelona. For a few years, he combined his work of restoration and reconstruction of sculptural ornaments of historic buildings with the preparation of his first exhibitions. That was decisive in the way of approaching his work and the aesthetic context in which it is situated.

Mas uses an array of textures and skills in his work that challenge the viewer making him enter a world where everything is possible. His influences come from the Renaissance, Egyptian and contemporary art with the addition of some playful elements from present days. Mas’s work is surreal and humorous, mixing elements that belong to different times such as his amazing Renaissance ladies and the life-size woman-sarcophagus. He has exhibited his sculptures in numerous international art fairs and exhibitions.

LADY OF THE LOLLIPOPS 2013, polychrome alabaster, 44 x 38 x 23 cm

LADY OF THE RAT 2010, polychrome alabaster, 58 x 42 x 35,5 cm

“I believe that art should not long for being read in a particular direction, but simply suggest, invite the viewer to situate itself within the framework proposed by the artist and to read himself.

That's what I'm trying. I pose anachronisms, irreconcilable disconnects between aesthetics and concept and contradictions that perhaps we all drag when we try to contemplate an object from the past with the eyes of the present.” Mas says. “I have always loved the art of the past. I especially like it when the distance in time makes my cultural codes are no longer valid to interpret it. When I contemplate a work from the pharaonic Egypt or from the middle age, no matter how hard I try, it is impossible for me to understand the social, religious and spiritual implications that this image had for a citizen of that time. Then my way of looking begins to contaminate its meaning. In these cases, we unconsciously invent new meanings enriching the artwork.

In my work I like to talk about this reinvention of the past.”

Photographs / Vanessa Miralles