It has been 25 years since Jaume Amigó, born in Barcelona, Spain, first began visiting Japan. While experiencing Japan’s rich culture, he has continued to produce and exhibit work all around the world.
ARTCOURT Gallery is pleased to present A Background Sound (*1), an exhibition that will be a culmination of this past-quarter century. A bold display of his new large-scale paintings in this space will showcase the creative world of Amigó.


This cycle of works began to take shape in 2015,
the year when I read 'The Narrow Road to
the Interior', a book by Matsuo Basho.
In this travel diary, Basho describes the places
he visited in northern Japan on his journey.
But Basho also explains that every trip you undertake is at
the same time a voyage of discovery
into the interior of yourself.
And fueled by his inspirational words,
I began to imagine mountains, rivers, villages,
landscapes, clouds, and many other of the things
Basho describes in his book.

     Jaume Amigó


In 2016, Amigó had a show in Sion, Switzerland, featuring installations, paintings and drawings inspired by ‘The Narrow Road to the Interior’. The next year in 2017 at his solo exhibition in Sant Pere de Riudebitlles, Spain, Amigó created an exhibition that used 6 different venues. At one of the venues, he exhibited all of his sketchbooks, showing sketches, notes and drawings that were made during his travels around the world. He also displayed several sculptures, paintings and installations, inspired by the words of Matsuo Basho, at the former 18th century paper mills in the same area, as an addendum to the sketchbooks.

Through the works to be shown in this exhibition, following his endeavors in Switzerland and Spain, Amigó was able to look back at many of the experiences and memories he has gathered on his yearly trips to Japan over the last twenty-five years. We hope you will join us in seeing this group of works, born from a journey by the artist into the interior of himself, guided by the words of Basho and his particular view of all of the landscapes he visited have been the guidance for a journey into the interior of himself.

*1. Amigó explains, “The title of this exhibition, A Background Sound, is a metaphor of the rich cultural sediment acquired on my visits to Japan, homeland of many friends who have nurtured this sound.”