Irene Grau’s work speaks about painting and landscape, of process and displacement through rigorous research into the possibilities of monochrome painting and its relation to landscape as both genre and framework, but above all as experimentation; as a way of seeing specially through walking. All of which is intermixed following the traditions of radical monochrome painting, mural painting, but also the performative processes and the genre of landscape art.
Often her work develops in series which are the result of a long sitespecifc research in nature, followed by an extensive work period in her studio where she experiments with diferent materials and techniques, to be fnalized in the exhibition space, where the work is again transferred and transformed in order to create a entity with the specifcity of the space.
The title of her recent doctoral thesis, ‘The Painter on the Road’, perfectly sums up her interest and attitude toward the medium of painting, and Irene Grau’s process could perfectly be described as a conceptual pleinairist, who states that her work is “what remains” of a wider experience, going far beyond the physically traveled landscape or an explored architectural structure. Solely transmitting an experience may well lack of concrete information, yet her work leaves enough hints to the viewer to allow access through process, intervention, and the document thereof, in order to visually and conceptually understand the artist’s modus operandi and artistic questioning and concerns.
Irene Grau holds her PhD in Fine Arts from the Universitat Politècnica of Valencia.
In 2010 she received an Academic Excellence Scholarship, and from 2011 to 2015 a scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports to carry out her PhD studies.
Recognized by national and international Awards such as Generaciones 2018, the 2018 Foreign Scholarship awarded by A Coruña Museum of Contemporary Art, the Isaac Díaz Pardo and the Mardel Visual Arts Awards, as well as the 2015 PhotoEspaña Of Festival Award. In 2016, she was included in Forbes’ List “30 Artists under 30 – Europe”. Her work was the subject of individual exhibitions in European and American institutions and galleries, such as the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA) in Birmingham, US; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) in Madison, US; Projeto Fidalga in São Paulo, Brazil; Heike Strelow gallery in Frankfurt, Germany, and the Alcobendas Art Center in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain; as well as in group exhibitions at La Casa Encendida in Madrid, Spain; the CaixaForum in Barcelona, Spain; the Centro de Arte dos de Mayo Museum (CA2M), Madrid, Spain; and at CDAN Art and Nature Centre, Huesca, Spain. Grau has shown specifc projects most recently at Bombón Projects in Barcelona, Spain; the IVAM (CADA) in Alcoi, Spain, the DIDAC Foundation in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and at the Cerezales Foundation Antonino y Cinia (FCAYC) in León, Spain.
Her next project scheduled for 2022, will be presented at APPLETON Square in Lisbon, Portugal. Her work can be found in collections as Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA), Madison WI, United States; CA2M Museum, Madrid, Spain; Cerezales Foundation Antonino y Cinia (FCAYC), León, Spain; MASAVEU PETERSON Foundation, Madrid, Spain; DKV Foundation, Valencia, Spain; the OTAZU Foundation, Navarra, Spain; and in numerous private collections in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.
