20th-21st Century Spanish

Sergi Aguilar was born in Barcelona in 1946 and studied at the Massana school and at the Conservatorio de las Artes del Libro in his home city. At first, following the family tradition, he focused his creative activity on contemporary jewellery design. A trip to Paris in 1965 proved highly influential for his later work thanks to his discovery of the sculpture of Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957), Julio González (1876-1942) and the Russian constructivists.

In 1972 he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to sculpture and in 1974 he had his first solo show at Galería Adrià in Barcelona.

Aguilar belongs to a generation of Spanish artists born following the Civil War who would be responsible for initiating the break from previous conceptions of sculpture and ushering in the experimentation and new ideas on space which were taking place in Europe and the United States.

Although the powerful and highly refined geometric aesthetic of his work has often led it to be ascribed to , it is however removed from this movement in his rejection of industrial means and pure formalism. His works are frequently based on the observation of nature –because the proportions, growth and balance are natural− to transform his reflections into poetic metaphors.

In the nineties one can discern how the artist began to incorporate his personal experiences, lending special importance to the territory, which inspired many works on concepts such as path, culture, sign or frontier.

Throughout his longstanding practice he has experimented with different materials and disciplines, like photography, audiovisuals or works for the public space, and has also played an exceptional role as both theorist and teacher. Between 1996 and 2001 he held the post of president of the Association of Visual Artists of Catalonia and he is currently director of Fundació Suñol, a foundation based in Barcelona, specialized in contemporary art.

Aguilar has shown his works in many solo and group exhibitions and they are also to be found in major institutions like Fundación Juan March and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in Madrid; Artium, in Vitoria, Kunsthalle Mannheim or Guggenheim Museum New York. In 2015, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona organized a retrospective survey of his work called Reverso / Anverso (1972-2015).