“Catalunya”: Exhibition by Alberto Garcia-Alvarez at Tim Melville Gallery, 2017

“An immersion in culturally significant periods is a distinguishing factor in the admirable practice of Alberto Garcia-Alvarez….”

Alberto García-Álavarez (Barcelona, 1928) shared ideology and activity with Joan Lleó, Domènec Fita, Romà Vallès and Francesc Carulla as a member of the Flamma group (1948-1953). His work was fully developed in Auckland, New Zealand, where he was a professor at the University of Fine Arts for 20 years and a mentor to a generation of students who followed him in a life dedicated to the teaching and practice of art. “Visiones y desconciertos” (“Visions and bewilderments”) deciphers his international career to reveal an unusual spirit of experimentation and a geometric constant that keeps him true to his origins.

Article elaborat pel Departament de Publicitat i Comunicacions de la Fundació Vila Casas, 2017 / Article prepared by the Publicity and Communications Department of the Fundació Vila Casas, 2017.

A review by John Hurrell, 14 October 2016, of Four Large Paintings; an exhibition by Alberto Garcia-Alvarez held at Tim Melville Gallery 27 September – 22 October 2016.

Eva Radich interviews Alberto Garcia-Alvarez on the occasion of his exhibition at City Gallery Wellington; Upbeat – Radio NZ, at 12:15 pm on 2 April 2015.

The T-shape, cross formation here is ubiquitous, sometimes with spiderlike radiating rods, or hanging clusters of parallel strips. As twisting or emerging beams, or swinging bars, they have a latent energy that usually restlessly rotates around a static centre – a fixed core. As activating (traversing) vectors in space they are energised by a thin organic paint application, and by the work’s negative spaces and shadows on the wall.

Tim Melville is pleased to present The Crossings; an exhibition of rediscovered artworks from as early as the 1970s alongside a suite of dazzling new paintings from 2014.

ln the first of a new artist mentor series, Linda Tyler talks to Alberto Garcia-Alvarez and the students – among them Judy Millar and Stephen Bambury – who were so profoundly influenced by his intellectual rigour, philosophical curiosity and commitment to living the life of an artist in a culture more steeped in rugby than art.