JOSÉ MANUEL BALLESTER

Spain, 1960

GALERÍA DANIEL CUEVAS

Since his beginnings, Ballester has shown interest in two fundamental elements that he has been representing in his work – pictorial and photographic – up to the present day: urban environments and natural landscapes.

Urban spaces, interior architectures, buildings under construction, are a metaphor for the constant change in which our society is immersed. In many cases, they are places under construction where human presence is excluded, or only perceived. Doors, windows, staircases put us in contact with the outside world as a transit, a path to be travelled without knowing where we are going to get to. The few human beings that appear in his works are shown as out of place, like intruders who can only be spectators of the architectural beauty that is presented before them.

Nature is another of Ballester’s thematic references. He presents himself before natural landscapes in order to draw our attention to our relationship with the environment, provoking a re-encounter with nature. In his own words, “man has domesticated nature. He now has a responsibility for the garden he has created”.