Joan Xandri: transient

The inspiration is in nature. With this premise, from now on and in Andorra la Vella we will be able to see the proposal that Joan Xandri presents to us, in a personal exhibition that, in a way, we can describe as a retrospective, since we will find works from the late eighties of the last century as well as others from a few months ago, some of the latter completed specifically for the exhibition. Permanent change, evolutionary perception, the realization that what we can consider permanent one day is no longer so the next day: all these are elements of knowledge that induce the artist to value the passage of time and the transformations that it entails or causes. And at the moment of making this reflection, Xandri has focused on what is closest to him: nature. This choice (not deliberate, instinctive) allows him to add to the previous conceptual work a supplementary consideration: the interaction that the person has with the natural environment. This interaction will be another element in the analysis of an evident transformation, which will cause the change —constant, often invisible, but which follows established rules resulting from the endogenous action of the natural environment— to be, in turn, modified.

Incipient, Joan Xandri (2013)

In expressing his perceptions, the artist does not adopt a vindictive character, but leads us to see what the transforming conditions of the environment are (natural or induced) and what effects they have. Transitory (the name of the exhibition) clearly indicates the path followed and its character. In addition to an introductory part, where we can see the oldest paintings —in which animals already appear, real, but which could seem imaginary—, the exhibition also includes a more theoretical reflection with more abstract results on the creative possibilities offered by new techniques (for example, Chinese ink) or new supports, as well as documentation relating to his presence in the Andorran national pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale in 2015. In the room dedicated to the installations —which have focused a considerable part of his work in recent times— we will see the prominent position that the conceptual part has acquired in his production, where the canvases (despite being at the base of the work) will be assimilated into more complex realities. Nature continues to be omnipresent, but now in different conditions.

Impermanència III, Joan Xandri (2022)