Biography
I was born in Lanús.
I attended a religious primary school and a tech secondary school. I started out studying graphic design at the UBA but didn't finish it.
I sold newspapers, rented sunshades at a pool, worked as an office-boy, made tile roofs, practiced parashooting, drove a rental car, and went to Cuba and Jamaica.
It was only later on that I started painting.
Vision of art
1. Choose a work that represents you, describe it in relation to its format and materiality, its relation with time and space, its style and theme; detail its production process.
The Saint Georges are two pieces alike, or almost.
On each one of them, the Saint fights against the Dragon; the body of the mythological animal shapes an "S" that interweaves a "J", forming the character's anagram.
When put together, they seem as if mass produced, but actually one is a model for the other one. I finished the first one back in 2006 and began the second one a year later, from zero, modelling each part all over again, making the plaster casts, straining the resin...
Overall, my work, and this one in particular, is related to the physical experience of 'doing', with discipline and concentration. I work slowly and I pay a great deal of attention to details. I don't have any assistants, don't believe in technical shortcuts and deeply admire these type of manual trades.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
07. Take a deep breath and relax your mind.
(Think of fresh steaming Pancakes to get all other thoughts off your mind.)
08. Be casual, like cookies being offered with coffee, and press play button
3. In reference to your work and your position in the national and international art fields, what tradition do you recognize yourself in? Who are your contemporary referents? What artists of previous generations are of interest to you?
I recognize myself within the religious, syncretic and regionalism of the Cusquean painting during the Spanish Colonization of Peru. Also in the tradition of book-copying in the scriptoria, the collective written output of a monastery in the Middle Ages. I agree with many of the ideas expressed in the Arts and Crafts movement.
I have also been deeply influenced since my childhood from Astroboy, Heidi and Speed cartoons. Thus, from the visual aspect, the work is linked to the Japanese (Murakami, Nara) but from a reality and a form of production completely different.
I like Giotto, Bosch, Dirk Bouth, both the Cathedral and University of Salamanca, the book of Kells, japanese gardens, Tadao Ando's churches, the unfinished Rem Koolhaas projects, Richard Buckminster Fuller's houses, the Pineapple House, industrial materials, chinese markets and toy stores.
I adore Ferdinand Cheval's Palais Idéal and Leonard Knight's Salvation Mountain.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
Don't know.
