Trained as an architect, Juan Ranieri (1969), Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently resides in Miami, Florida. His intense training in the field of architectural drawing at a time when computers were not easily available led him to explore different media and techniques to represent both buildings and urban ideas. Through the concept of floor plans, sections, facades and axonometrics, he began to explore the meaning of those cities and buildings and their interrelationships with the societies that inhabit them, giving rise, in many cases, to a sociopolitical, ethical and aesthetic reading of the urban context.
He received awards in Salón Nacional de Dibujo, Argentina; Premio Telecom (cover for the Phone Directory of Buenos Aires); Drawing Discourse, Asheville University NC; Premio Quinquela Martín, Windsor&Newton a Calendar for ‘2000, London; Premio Novartis, "A Monument for Khalil Gibran", Buenos Aires, Urban Landscape Prize, Epperson Gallery, Crockett, CA among others.
In 2022 he received "The Gottlieb Foundation Individual Grant" among seven hundred artists all around the world. His work is part of important collections like Merrill Lynch; McDonald’s Argentina; Telecom; Museo Quinquela Martín; Colección Fortabat; Molaa (Museum of Latin American Art Los Angeles), CA; Coral Gables Museum, Miami, FL; UADE Art, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, among others.
In "Rare Postcards of two" Rainieri uses different media like graphite drawing, painting, sgraffito, etc., looking for the meaning and the footprint that iconic constructions engrave in the memory of their people, both Argentine and American -of his motherland and his adopted homeland- with their differences and similarities.
He aims to unravel what these shapes and geometries constructions hide in these almost fantastic architectures and what are they trying to tell us. By creating these rare postcards, he intends to leave a powerful testimony of the resignification and understanding of these structures in a tone that is both ridiculous and cynical.
Friday May 3rd, 6:00pm
12 West 56th st Nueva York, NY 10019.
