Biography
He begins to study at the ENBA Lola Mora in 1981, in 1983 he does military service, in La Plata a kidney is removed from him in the BIM 3, from 1985 to 1987 he studies with Gorriarena and at the same time he is devoted to music (punk rock and jazz); indeed, the "Punks Series" by Gorriarena was based on photos he provided of some punk stars and punk bands. In 1991 he wins the Georges Braque Award of the Embassy of France. He stays there until 1993, getting to know some artists with whom he makes acquaintances, such as Michel Majerus and Pedro Castrortega. Also in Paris he meets Rómulo Macció, Fernando Maza, Mario Gurfein, Luis Felipe Noé. When he returns to Argentina, his father gets seriously ill, a fact that destroys him mental and economically for a period of four years and a bit more. He gets a scholarship in the Proa-Kuitca workshop (1994 or 1995). In 2002 he obtains the consolation prize at the Latin American Painting Contest. In 2003 he makes a retrospective of his work from 1994 to 2003 at the Recoleta Cultural Center. In 2004 he obtains a mention in the National Hall of the Nación Bank. In 2005 he obtains the first Painting Prize in the Octubre Foundation. He is a teacher in the Art Therapy postgraduate (IUNA), in the Philadelphia Institute, in the Ernesto de la Cárcova School, in the Sivori Museum. He has given courses and conferences in Malba, ESEADE, British Art Center, among others. He participated as jury in some awards of painting and photography. He is currently curator of the gallery located in Lavalleja St. 1100 and Córdoba Av. (it opened last October 9th with an exhibition of his works). He is a lousy writer of summarized autobiographies. Married to Barbara, father of Anna (three years) and Santiago (one year).
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.
"Luxury, calm, voluptuousness" ["Lujo, calma, voluptuosidad"] (1994-2003) is a work that began in 1994 and grew in size and density of meaning over time. It began as a small circular island, geometrically composed of saturated color planes on which rests a dummy that represents the front of a naked person without apparent sex. With "front", I mean that it's as if someone had skinned the front of a human body, it's all surface, without padding, back nor past. It carries in one hand a razor blade and the wrist of its other hand is dripping blood, somehow reverberating works of the early nineties (the "Cheerful suicide victims" [”Suicidas alegres”]). In each exhibition (Borges Cultural Center, MNBA) the island grew until it became an archipelago of tables of various sizes, absolutely geometric, always installed at ground level. In the retrospective exhibition in the Recoleta Cultural Center in 2003, there were added in a vertical direction three canvases of 300 x 60 cm, sixteen of 40 x 30 cm and one of 60 x 60 cm as a crown, and the archipelago layed on a base of 5 x 300 x 300 cm that represented the sea. So whereas the human being becomes hollow, it is surrounded by beauty (real or apparent). It condemns itself to the shallowness, to the vacuum interior and ultimately to death (whether physical, mental, spiritual or all at same time). The technique is acrylic paint on canvas and found object.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
Like all the other works in the world, with perennial values and besides with momentary values, more linked to the time and place they were created. Paying attention to its formal and technical values as well as to its conceptual aspects. With value of referenced sign to the history of art and simultaneously as symbol.
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 identify with a perennial tradition. I have no contemporaries that influence me, although I am quite familiar with the scene of the Western art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It's not a lack of modesty or recognition, I think the artists who influenced me most have absolutely nothing to do with what I do and even they are not necessarily modern or from contemporary period. Contrary to what may seem perhaps I am more influenced by Vermeer, Hopper and Morandi than by artists closer in appearance to my work.
4. Choose works or exhibitions from the last ten or fifteen years which in your opinion were very significant and explain why
There were many: Noé, Gorriarena, Hlito, Distéfano, Gómez, Suárez, Cambre, Heredia, etc, but I remember with more affection one by Rómulo Macció in the Recoleta Cultural Center in 1991. I was moved in depth by it, which is not very usual. It touched a nerve of my heart, if I had to describe it in a silly way...
