Francisco Leiro

FRANCISCO LEIRO LOIS (Cambados, Pontevedra, 1957).
Untitled, brutalist period, 1984.
Ink on paper.
Signed and dated in the lower right corner.
Provenance: private collection of Luz Amelio from Naples, a key figure in the art world who in 1980 put Andy Warhol in contact with the German scenic artist Joseph Beuys. It was also he who brought together the world's most famous visual artists in Naples, his hometown.
Measurements: 21 x 30 cm; 28.5 x 38.5 cm (frame).

One of the striking aspects of Francisco Leiro's sculptures and drawings is their unique juxtaposition of figurative forms and abstract structures, as if object and subject shared the same carnal essence. It is his personal fusion of influences, from traditional Galician sculpture to Mesopotamian hieratism and German expressionism, which results in a unique and unrepeatable artistic equation.

Francisco Leiro began his training as a self-taught artist, influenced by popular Galician imagery and by his father, a stonemason by profession. He then moved to Santiago de Compostela to enter the School of Arts and Crafts of the city, and then completed his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid. In 1975 he held his first exhibition, in the Cultural Society of Cambados, and during this decade he was part of the artistic group Foga. At the beginning of the eighties he participated in the Atlántica group exhibitions, which brought together the emerging generation that was to renew the Galician plastic arts. Soon, before the end of the decade, his presence would be constant in artistic circles in Spain, Europe and the United States; in 1985 he represented Spain at the São Paulo Biennial, and the following year he participated for the first time in the ARCO fair in Madrid, where he has shown his work regularly ever since. In 1988 he settled in New York, and that same year he received his first public commissions: "My sofas" (Pontevedra) and "Coloso" (Magdalene Palace in Santander). The following year he was selected for the 1st Mostra Unión Fenosa in A Coruña, where his work "Torso Sentado" (Seated Torso) was acquired by the company. Also in 1989 he carried out another important public commission, "Balboas III" (El Ferrol). Having consolidated his international career, in 1990 he began to work for the Marlborough Gallery in New York, where he presented a solo exhibition of sculpture that year. Since then he has held personal exhibitions in this gallery as well as in others in Spain, Portugal, the United States, Chile, Buenos Aires, Brazil and El Salvador, in addition to participating in important group exhibitions and fairs in Europe and the United States, in such prominent centers as the Palais Royal in Paris (2001) or the MNCARS in Madrid (2006). He has also been awarded the Castelao Medal by the Xunta de Galicia (2000) and the Medal of Fine Arts of the CEOE (2003). He is currently represented at the MACBA in Barcelona, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Marugame Hirai in Kagawe (Japan), the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, the Fundación Caixanova, the Museo de Castrelo in Vigo, the Museo de Bellas Artes in Álava, the Instituto de Crédito Oficial in Madrid, Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey, the collections-foundations La Caixa, Coca-Cola and Caja de Madrid, the Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago de Compostela, the Centro Cultural São Laurenço in Almancil (Portugal), the Asociación de los Amigos del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and the Akron Art Museum in Ohio (USA), among other collections both in Spain and abroad.UU.), among other public and private collections.