Vicente Prego

VICENTE PREGO VÁZQUEZ (A Coruña, 1957).
"Santiago," 2003.
Oil on panel.
Signed and dated on the reverse.
Measurements: 100 x 100 cm; 101 x 101 cm (frame).

Dated 2003, “Santiago” is a particularly representative example of Vicente Prego’s mature style, a period in which the artist integrates the Informalist tradition with a fragmentary evocation of architecture and historical memory. The city does not appear as a recognizable view, but is transformed into a mental image: a succession of arches and cavities emerging from a dark, eroded surface laden with temporal resonances.
The painterly medium plays an essential role in this construction. Glazes, scraping, incisions, and dense gradations of ochres, blacks, and earth tones give the panel the appearance of an aged wall, upon which the architecture seems to manifest as an archaeological vestige. The square format reinforces its frontal, almost mural character, while the half-light transforms the depicted space into an ambiguous territory, situated between monumental presence and its gradual disappearance.
This conception ties directly into Prego’s evolution from Informalism—in which textures and materials defined the work—toward the incorporation of scripts, signs, and architectural fragments linked to antiquity and memory. His explorations led to real or imagined architectural forms that emerge from textural backgrounds, maintaining a balance between figurative reference and the autonomy of the painting.

After graduating in 1982 from the Mestre Mateo School of Arts and Crafts in Santiago de Compostela, he later continued his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Pontevedra. His exhibition career began in 1985 and was early on linked to the Trinta Gallery in Santiago, with which he participated in several consecutive editions of ARCO. His work is included in collections such as those of the Provincial Council of A Coruña, the Unión Fenosa Collection, the Xunta de Galicia, the Consorcio de Santiago, and the University of A Coruña, among others.