Carlos Aires (1974) is an internationally acclaimed Spanish artist known worldwide mainly for appropriating icons, traditions and objects from the universe of contemporary popular culture and music.
The exhibition at Ani Molnár Gallery, the artist’s first solo show in Hungary, presents works that deal with the visual representation of historical and political figures and events, mainly from a critical perspective, often with dark humour and cynicism, always keeping the current world political events in mind.
The works of Carlos Aires transcend the technical specificities of photography, sculpture, installation, video art, happening, among other media. One of the main characteristics of his work is transdisciplinarity.
His playful formal solutions operate as a critical apparatus on contemporary social and political themes, using a specific set of motifs to explore the phenomena of the global capitalist economic system, the art market and historical narratives, predominantly through pop-cultural references.
The works, which use banknotes, portraits of public figures or lyrics, not only suspend the distinction between low and high culture, but also activate various hidden layers of meaning in the images and texts in question, emphasising their potential for cultural critique in contrast to their banality.