CATALAN JOFRE OLIVERAS IS COMMUNICATING THE AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE THROUGH URBAN ART
MARIE BERTELSEN | ARTICULATE #19 | APRIL 2019
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Catalan artist Jofre Oliveras looks at the public, urban space for creating art. Communication through art is a central theme with Oliveras’ art. Although his art can be seen as playful and experimental, dealing with public space, there is a seriousness and clear intention behind it as well. 
 
Overall the immediate in combination with the inner world of experience is seen in Oliveras’ art. We see the dichotomy between the inner and outer, which in other words is our inner experiences and thoughts and the alterations of the physical world to create art. We thereby see a play with the inner thought world and outer, physical world. 

There is a common world and a reflective upper layer of consciousness at play. 

For Oliveras, the most important thing is coherence with oneself. He states he is aware that in order to take a direction in life, it helps to take the opposite direction since everything, at last, helps to experiment and learn. Because the most important thing is having the audacity to do what one thinks and be responsible with their concerns. This is what Oliveras reflects in his work. 

His work involves thinking extensively about what he wants to talk about and how he wants to express it. For Oliveras there is an absolute intention and full awareness of how he wants to communicate.

Although having a portfolio consisting of murals, site-specific art, and general multimedia, Oliveras takes a heuristic approach.

​Oliveras has a predilection for oil painting, which in his words is a classic technique that allows a lot of resources and the possibility of working with colors in an interesting way that always present challenges. 

But Oliveras allows himself to experiment with any material that he believes gives meaning to the idea he wants to communicate. In his words, the subject is our contemporary lifestyles, relations of power in society, points of view of our behavior. All common things in daily life. For the composition, it is important to know the space and put the elements where you want to generate attraction or where the message have more substance. 

For the composition, the key is balance. To use all the elements and everything makes the necessary harmony.

When asked about the most important sources of influence, Oliveras answers the immediate close relations, which in its own way this is in accordance with Oliveras’ inspiration from the commonplace, everyday:
Oliveras’ most important inspiration are from his friends and coworkers: Mateu Targa and Octavi Serra from collective Cumul, Axel Void, Sebas Velasco, Ampparito, Elisa Capdevila and Michael Beitz. 

Thus, Oliveras mentions the immediate close relations, which in its own way is in accordance with Oliveras’ inspiration from the commonplace and everyday situations. Similarly, we can draw inspiration from the surroundings we see in our lives.

Oliveras states that to define art, we could start from the idea that art is the expression of the aesthetic experience, that it is communication, or also, our language manifesting beauty. This leads us to explain how we define this language. But the truth is, the language is what defines us. Since the mind is only possible through a communication system, our inside is configured by many complex relations of languages which represent our experiences.  

Our complete consciousness develops from sharing our impressions with others, contrasting our imaginary to a common reality. All the language structures that allow ideas, concepts and constructions is configuring our mind.
When we want define art, we could start by saying that art is what defines us. 

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This article about JOFRE OLIVERAS takes part of ARTICULATE #19. Read, download or order your print version of the full publication below