Juan Fuster - Sierra de Santa Pola

Sierra de Santa Pola, realized in 2008, is part of a broad series in which the artist explores the expressive possibilities of wood as the protagonist element of the composition.
The work is built on a base of MDF and incorporates wide timbers, predominantly in red tones, worked together with acrylics. The result is a composition of a strongly Expressive character, in which matter, relief and color acquire an especially intense presence.
Despite the strength of the reds and the bluntness of the wooden pieces, the work conveys a notable sense of luminosity and openness. Light seems to pass through and balance the material intensity of the composition, generating a dialogue between density and lightness, between the force of the gesture and chromatic clarity.
The use of wide woods also provides an almost sculptural dimension to the piece, making the painted surface acquire volume and depth. Sierramar thus represents a personal investigation into the relation between matter, color, texture and light, within a highly energetic expressionist language.
A work of strong plastic presence, especially interesting for collectors who value experimentation with materials and the pictorial proposals of a material and expressionist character.
Juan Fuster (Elche, 1968) is a plastic artist from Alicante whose career has developed around pictorial research and the incorporation of contemporary materials into the language of painting. He initially trained in Graphic Design at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Alicante, later expanding his artistic training at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston, where he deepened especially in drawing and painting.
From his early stages, Fuster has shown special interest in matter, surfaces, textures and the expressive possibilities of materials, progressively moving painting toward realms close to collage, assemblage and sculpture. Wood occupies a particularly significant place within this research.
His work has been described as a meeting point between material painting and sculpture, using woods, objects and other materials to build surfaces of great visual and physical richness. In exhibitions such as The Air that Wears Us Down (Miguel Hernández University, 2006), the use of structures, wood and objects to generate compositions characterized by volume, color, textures and lines was already highlighted.