Brushstrokes of Time by Jaume Vidal Times of reference, time wasted, dead time. Life is time that cracks and falls to pieces. Cultivating time (sometimes the harvest is good and time is great). Life is a stock-market gamble with time. Fate is the deal you cut with time. Glory is using time the right way. There’s a time for love and time wasted looking for it. Art is time. Josep M. Codina works with time and in time. He always has. Codina first painted the substantiation of time: clocks with impatient hands. In his early works youth is always in a hurry, early paintings in which the artist converses with time, but is still limited by conventional inexperience. Time is humans’ greatest dictator. Time passes. Codina keeps on painting. The artist is known for his tenacity. Paintings as dense as the time they represent. He is trapped by art. And by time, Codina learns that time is a wise character. He represents time as enigmatic and disconcerting. The artist’s second period. Representation is not literal. Codina paints what he cannot see: the time he cannot see, but feels. A certain amount of time has passed. Josep M. Codina was born in Mataró in 1958. Neither a long or short time ago. The Lord of Time snickers at our concept of time. Eternity could be a second. Codina goes back to time again and again. He knows what it’s worth it. And he also learns to represent it in more intelligent ways. His paintings are surfaces made with layers of time. The materials are an expression of that time: wood, paraffin, wax, paper. Preparation takes time. The process is also art. Painting as a process. Time is the raw material of painting. Codina caresses time when preparing the painting. The pictorial movement that lends a formal appearance to the painting is very subtle. It combines the naïveté of a child’s doodle with the cold metallic knife thrust that kills a period of time. Even more time. We are now in the present. It is gallery time. Show time. Shared time. We can tell that time has passed. With the passage of time, the big question is whether or not we have more time. Codina provides an answer. He has discovered that time can be accumulated. In his latest works he has closed the wounds of time. The incisions have produced folds. Each fold is a movement of time, each fold is an instant. Many folds are Life. Like Codina’s brushstrokes. Brushstrokes of time.
Josep M. Codina Mataró, 1958 Individual exhibitions 2011 Cal Talaveró. Verdú. Lleida Galeria Gran Hotel Marina. Barcelona Museu Arxiu. Llavaneres. Barcelona 2010 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona 2008 Ateneu Caixa Laietana 2007 Giart. Galeria d’art. Girona Ca la Pruna. Pals. Girona Palacio Aramburu. Tolosa Cal Talaveró. Verdú, Lleida Can Xerracan. Montornès del Vallès 2005 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona Fundació Vila Casas de Torroella de Montgrí Museu Monjo de Vilassar de Mar 2004 Galeria Espai 28. Mataró Fundació “la Caixa”. Tarragona 2002 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona Museu d’Art Modern de Tarragona
2001 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona 1998 …in extremis. Sales d’exposicions Can Palauet. Mataró Centre Cultural Torre Vella. Salou 1995 Sala d’exposicions Caixa Laietana. Mataró Galeria Palma XII. Vilafranca del Penedès 1993 Galeria Artsenal. Sant Cugat del Vallès Galeria Palma XII. Vilafranca del Penedès Galeria Cartón. Barcelona 1991 Galeria Ionit. Sant Cugat del Vallès Galeria Llevant. Llafranc Museu Monjo. Vilassar de Mar 1990 Galeria Aixernador. Argentona Galeria Velázquez. Valladolid 1987 Sala Fons d’Art de l’Empordà. La Bisbal 1986 Galeria Llevant. Llafranc 1985 Sala d’exposicions Caixa Laietana. Mataró
Group exhibitions 2011 Reflexions. Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona” 2008 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona “El casament” Sala Exposicions Caixa Laietana. Mataró 2007 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona Casal Aliança. Mataró Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona 2006 GIART. Galeria d’art. Girona Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona “Artissima” . Turín. 2005 Fundació Universal de la Sardana, itinerant per Europa 2003 Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona Galeria Espai 28. Mataró 2002 D.O. Modernisme. Gaudí 2002. Vilafranca P.
2001 ARCO 01 Galeria Pau d’Adara. Sitges Torre Vella. Salou Àmbit Galeria d’Art. Barcelona 2000 ARCO 00 1999 ARCO 99 1998 Galeria Victoria Quarter. Leeds. Art Box. Barcelona. Art Box. Londres. Galeria Palma XII. Vilafranca del Penedès 1997 ARCO 97 Galeria Palma XII. Vilafranca del Penedès Sala Harvey Nicholson. London Hipermerc’Art Sala Vinçon. Barcelona New Art . Barcelona Espai d’Art. Terrassa Biblioteca de Aragon. Zaragoza Centre Fonvielle. Monaco
1996 ARCO 96 Firart. Vilafranca del Penedès Diseño Sur. Santiago de Xile Hipermerc’Art Sala Vinçon. Barcelona 1995 Hipermerc’Art Sala Vinçon. Barcelona Baz’Art. Marsella, França 1994 Art Miami 92. Miami. U.S.A Galeria Artsenal. Sant Cugat del Vallès Awards 2007 Finalist: Torres Garcia awards. Mataró 2005 Cow Parade. Barcelona Selected 3rd prize: Pictorial research awards. Salou. 1st prize: Guastavino Awards. Vilassar de Mar Awarded: Torres Garcia awards. Mataró 2004 Selected 3rd prize: Pictorial research awards. Salou. 2002 Making of “les Santes” poster. Mataró.
2001 1st prize: Guastavino Awards. Vilassar de Mar 2000 2nd prize: Pictorial research awards. Salou. 2nd prize: Guastavino Awards. Vilassar de Mar. 1997 Selected : Art bienal : Granollers 2 nd prize: Baix Penedès painting awards. 3rd prize: Vilafranca del Penedès’ Firart 2 nd mention Juan R. Masoliver National Painting Awards. Montcada i Reixac 1996 1st prize: Vilafranca del Penedès’ Firart 1st prize: Competition Graphique pour l’EURO. Brussels 1995 2nd prize: Vilafranca del Penedès’ Firart
Collections “Witness” la Caixa Foundation Modern Art Museum of Tarragona Vila Casas Foundation Pompeu Fabra public library. Mataró.
Cardboard 18 90x65 Ref.k01
Cardboard 19 90x65 Ref. k02
Cardboard 20 90x65 Ref. k03
Cardboard 21 90x65 Ref. k04
Cardboard 21 90x65
Ref. k05
Ephemeral horizon 130x130 Ref. k06
Beginning 195x130 Ref. k07
Memory 180x100 Ref. k08
Memory 2 180x100 Ref. k09
Memory 3 180x100 Ref. k10
NoĂşmens 10 40x40 Ref. k11
NoĂşmens 11 40x40 Ref. k12
NoĂşmens 10 40x40 Ref. k13
Drum 1, 2, 6 & 7 49x41 Ref. k14, k15 k16 & k17
Pressure d/b
Pressure d/e
130x170 (Ref. k18)
130x170 (Ref. k19)
Trace of absences 1, 2, 3 & 4 65x55 Ref. k20, 21, 22 & 23
Inside passage 130x100 Ref. 24
Overture 60x60 Ref. 25
Josep M. Codina (Mataró, 1958) made his first exhibition in Mataró in 1985. Formed in academia, first at the school of applied arts Pau Gargallo Badalona and later at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Barcelona, began his artistic career marked by the mastery of the artists like Novellas and Arenas from Mataro. Codina quickly emerged from the early influences, to go into the creation of a personal pictorial language, today set a particular artistic universe. Codina has combined the pictorial work with the design and teaching and has won various awards and distinguished honors, Codina has a long exhibition history, with works in private collections and public institutions. Usually his work is exhibited in Gallery Àmbit of Barcelona.