Jose Cháfer
Cuerpo y Alma
20 April – 10 June 2023
On April 20, Álvaro Alcázar Gallery opens Cuerpo y Alma, a solo exhibition where artist Jose Cháfer introduces his latest works. The exhibition presents around thirty unpublished sculptures, most of them unique pieces made of stone, bronze and wood. Furthermore, the artist has incorporated natural materials which he had barely used in his previous works, such as walnut, black poplar and Calatorao marble. The show includes small and large format sculptures, made in direct carving or bentwood, as well as suspended works, free-standing or wall-mounted.
For his first great solo exhibition, Cháfer has felt the need to share a conceptual aspect of his work, hence its title Cuerpo y Alma (Body and Soul). Starting from a previous style, starring sculptures of infinite trajectories which are the soul and essence of his work, Cháfer now takes a step further, incorporating into his pieces a sort of “skin”, turning them into authentic “bodies”. Bodies that are linked to solidity, earthly and mortal, in opposition to the average features which characterize the soul, such as lightness, infinity or eternity.
Although Cháfer wants to transmit with his works the personal concept that ” there is no body without soul”, this exhibition has also been a technical challenge for the artist, as he now explores new forms in his creative process to continue advancing in his studies.
Beyond the symbolic aspect, in formal terms Cháfer remains faithful to one of the elements that have most attracted his attention since the beginning of his career as a sculptor: the curves, continuous lines that constantly change direction. This time, however, starting from sculptures based on the exploration of paths and voids, he now investigates concepts such as mass and tensions, which particularly attract his attention because they allow him to understand how they are capable of fulfilling a space that used to be empty.
During the exhibition, it will become clear, through the presence of natural materials and the need to give body to the soul of his works, how Cháfer maintains a particular connection with the environment, which has always been fundamental in his own narrative.