Today , the Angel Orensanz Foundation will talk about his idealizer Angel, and take you in a journey of the exhibitions the artist did in the country he was born, Spain. The artist moved to NYC in the 80,s. He feel in love with the abandoned synagogue in 172 Norfolk St. , in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and bought it. In 1992 it opened as the Angel Orensanz Foundation, a base for Angel to work and also a center for the arts. But he was never bound to a place; Angel traveled the world with his art and eventually was drawn back to Spain.
In fact, the Spanish sculptor has been exposing in the european country since 67, but that is just a little too long ago, so lets focus on the big installations of the last ten years. In 2006 he did a exhibition in Castile, near Madrid, a two square kilometers depiction of Don Quijote and his fabled horse into the old land of Castile, where Cervantes envisioned him five hundred years ago. The show was made possible with the support of locals, something Angel always try to incorporate in his work.
“After a full year of international abuzz about Cervantes’ Don Quijote; after thousands of shows and lectures, political posturing and cultural ruminations, I thought that it was time to release Don Quijote itself into the very land where his creator placed him.” – Angel Orensanz
Two years after, in 2008, he celebrated one of his favorite forms, the sphere with the implementation of a 15 feet diameter sculpture piece in front of the World Trade Center, in the capital city of Aragon, Zaragoza. The sculpture traveled until its final destination in a parade of civic pride and art celebration and the crowds flanked the center of the city and the avenues en route to the sculpture’s destination.
“It is the most universal concept in human culture, from Parmenides to Einstein. This one in steel is a final version of a transparent one that I built in New York, and rolled down Fifth Avenue, from the Metropolitan Museum to City Hall to mourn the tragic events of September 11. This sphere portrays a new world in constant transition and redefinition of itself,” – Angel Orensanz
From the capital of Aragon, he went to the capital of Spain, Madrid, where he exposed in the Museo del Traje, the exhibition called Paradigmas, invaded the museum’s extensive gardens, with site-specific sculptural installations. The bright and colorful fabrics hang from the trees, are intertwined in the entrance’s rotunda and enmeshed in the fountains, inviting the viewer to observe the constant dialogue that takes place between the artist and nature.
Finally, his most recent work in Spain is still visible in the University of Barcelona, more specifically in the gardens (Angel is fond of nature and the relationships in can create) of its historic building, in Barcelona, where Angel is exposing the exhibit “Time, Space and Innovation” .
Sources: prweb, ub, angelorensanz
