Jafet Blanch(https://www.jafetblanch.com/ ), born in 1977, Barcelona, Spain. Now in Taipei for his first exhibition in Asia. The YIRI ARTS contact him about 2 years ago, and he started to painting more than one year for 20 artworks in this exhibition call “Durbec”.
Is that normal for an artist doing 20 paintings over a year? How can an artist focus on art but not another daytime job to support their passion for art? Talking about money and art, that’s what Jafet told me: “ I have something to say, not something to sale. The reason I am painting is more like how I live.. I want to express myself.. to bring you come to me. ”
In his website we can see all the artworks during these years. His painting style is keep moving and changing . In 2014 “P.I.G.S”, there are more sharp and critical…like spirit of graffiti —And Jafet really into graffiti in his early years. For example, “VOGUE” use the elements “ Mona Lisa “ from Leonardo da Vinci with a strange mask . In “Sheep’s got talent” we can see Jesus with a shiny neon lights shows the word “superstar”.
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| VOGUE by Jafet Blanch |
And move to 2015 “Isolated” like he wrote on website “Being or feeling set or kept apart from others.” Its more interesting, and keep searching something deep inside. We can see in “Happy End” there’s a Asian beauty with a frog reminds us a fairly tale “the frog prince” . “Pet ＄how” just like the title use “$” not “S” for a smart pun. And in these artworks we can also see some oriental elements.
His first solo exhibition was in his hometown Barcelona 2017 call “FETEN”. And for now this year in Taipei, he said: “ I want to focus the beautiful moment of our life.” And now his painting more romanticism and classicism, feel like sweet dreams.
“Yes the life is changing. For me ,now I prefer to capture the beauty of our life. Because a lot of bad things, suck things happen everyday. I want to capture the beautiful moments into my painting, just like a bird in the cage. People catch a bird in the cage just for hear the bird singing. Its a bit strange but I can doing that for art like this: capture the beautiful moments from our life and keep it in my painting. So you can watch it again and again. And that’s why I named this exbihtion call Durbec. ”
Talk about this exhibition , he also named each painting the title with different kind of birds name. “When I painting , I can feel every painting have a different song from them. So every painting have their own name which from different kind of bird.”
What make Jafet being a painter? In fact he doing a lot of different jobs for many years. Working at animate company, graphic design, interior design, art teacher.. “Life is too short. One day I found that I always work for other people's ideas, why not work for myself? I should work for my own ideas.”
I wonder how he keep moving and painting until now. Never feel tired ? “ Painting is like a process. Its just like you want to climbing a mountain, you can see the mountain is there, just keep climbing.”
畫家Jafet Blanch為首次亞洲台北畫展籌備一年，從2017年開始為首度來到亞洲的這次展覽，繪製了全新共二十幅作品。他說台北這裡提出邀請其實是兩年前的事了，但他著手開始繪製作品大概是一年的時間。我想著一年能夠畫出二十幅作品，這樣的創造力該說是豐沛嗎？再對照每幅畫作的價格，和這位外型帥氣英挺的西班牙新銳畫家的首個問題，便忍不住俗氣的在金錢和藝術間打轉。
「我創作這些畫作是因為我心裡有話要說，不是為了要賺錢。」Jafet認真地說。「如果是為了賺錢，我大可選擇其他更有錢途的行業，為什麼要當藝術家？」
在Jafet自己的官網上可以看到他歷年來的作品，從中不難窺出其風格的轉變。從2014年的「P.I.G.S」嘲諷的特質可嗅出早年街頭塗鴉的氣息。像是以名作《蒙娜麗莎的微笑》掛上猶如V怪客的面具成為當今時尚雜誌《VOGUE》的封面《VOGUE》。讓十字架上的耶穌頭上頂著Superstar的霓虹燈的畫作《Sheep’s got talent》。《Rampoines》中則可見麥當勞速食餐盤裡躺著的是一隻全身雞毛未剝的雞 。
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| Sheep's got talent by Jafet Blanch |
到了2015年的「Isolated」，直接點明現代人當眾孤寂與疏離的特質。Jafet的畫作以寫實為基調，從此階段開始，他逐漸偏向華麗豐富的色彩與意象，更對比出畫作裡的寂寥與蒼惶氣息。《Happy End》中一名黑髮東方女子張口欲吃青蛙令人想起《青蛙王子》的童話故事。《Amapola》裡滿身薔薇玫瑰各式花朵的骷髏也是他長期熱愛的主題。《Pet ＄how》刻意在命名中以＄取代S的雙關之意不言而喻，畫作中的紅鶴彷彿被囚禁在地鐵車箱裡。這時期的畫作也開始出現一些東方元素。
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| Pet $how by Jafet Blanch |
2016年在家鄉巴塞隆那舉辦的首度個展「FETEN」則結合了繪畫及雕塑作品。2017年他則開始籌備首次來台展出的「Durbec」的畫作。在此回展出的二十幅畫作中，風格更趨近於古典主義，帶有羅曼蒂克的氛圍，整體色調更為明亮而金光閃爍，恍如夢境。而對比這回亞洲首次個展的主題，Jafet的創作意圖顯得更為有趣。
1977年出生於巴塞隆那的Jafet Blanch，自2012年開始參與各項展出，直至2016年才開辦首度個展。今年一月台北的展出也不過是他的第二次個展，初訪台北的他的也顯得相當興奮，畢竟是他初回插旗亞洲。
Jafet早年沈浸在街頭塗鴉，所以他自認繪畫風格結合了街頭塗鴉的嘲諷特性。「塗鴉主要是在彰顯個人的意見，對我來說，我是在十幾歲到二十幾歲那段時間塗鴉，所以可能奠定了我一些大型繪畫的基礎。但那畢竟和繪畫完全不同。塗鴉更像是一種藝術行動，繪畫比較更趨近於內心的創作。相較之下我更喜歡繪畫。」
「繪畫是呈現我自己的價值觀，我做藝術不是為了賺錢。如果為了賺錢，我有更多行業可以選擇，我之所以走上這條路，就是因為我有話想說。」
而對他而言，只要做好自己現在做的事，機會就會隨之而來。正如他之所以成為畫家，也是在相關產業不斷累積。在此之前，他也一直在相關創意產業工作。曾經待過動畫公司，從事過室內設計、視覺設計，當過藝術課程的講師。「我一直都在為他人工作，有一天，忽然間我覺得不想再浪費生命了。為他人工作是在成就他人，完成他人的想法。我為什麼不能發出自己的聲音？如果我有話要說？」
談到網際網路，「我覺得網路就像一張名片。當我遇到新朋友的時候，過去我們是給一張名片，現在我只要給對方一個網址，對方就能看見我所有的作品。」他說。「我覺得網路就像一扇窗戶。是我和觀眾溝通，面向外界的管道。但其實我不對網路抱太大期望，我更偏好在真實生活中與人面對面的接觸。網路造就很多網紅的現象，但這也完全與我的群眾悖離。我不覺得喜歡我畫作的人會去迷戀或追隨我在網路上發佈的任何動態。」
他提到，對於現階段的自己來說，他更追尋透過繪畫來傳達美的意象。「因為我們的生活裡充滿很多鳥事爛事，所以我更偏向留下生活裡美好的片刻。就像很多人會用籠子把鳥囚禁起來，只為欣賞鳥兒的歌聲。我覺得為了欣賞去囚禁鳥是非常奇怪的事，但換個角度來說，我覺得我的畫作就像是籠中鳥，能夠透過畫作留下最美的時光，隨時欣賞。」
這回個展的主題「Durbec」完全扣緊Jafet心中對於繪畫的懸念。他說希望自己的繪畫對於所有觀者都像是打開一段新的旅程，不是只看到畫作的表象，而是能看透繪畫的隱喻。而關於主題以鳥命名更為有趣。「對我而言，藝術品就像籠中鳥，我們透過繪畫將美好的時光靜止在繪畫裡。每幅畫作在我心中都彷彿是一首歌，不同的鳥兒哼唱不同旋律。所以這回二十幅畫作的名字分別就是二十種鳥兒。」
比起Jafet過往畫作有出現男性，女性，幼兒，此回展出的作品幾乎百分之八十都是女性的肖像。透過他輝煌亮眼的濃重色彩，這些女性個個若有所思。
訪談最後問到「創作的祕訣」。藝術家難免有靈感枯竭的時候，他怎麼克服呢？「我覺得畫畫對我來說，像是一種過程。我可以拿『登山』來做比喻。每天爬一點，最後就會爬到終點。」
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