Juan Ugalde

JUAN UGALDE (Bilbao, 1958).
"Damen und herren", 2004.
Mixed media on canvas.
Signed and dated on the back.
Measurements: 50 x 50 cm.
It is usual in Ugalde's work the combination of contradictory languages, of dissimilar realities, of visual paradoxes..., as in this case. Juan Ugalde began his artistic training at the School of Fine Arts in Madrid. In 1986 he moved to New York thanks to a Fullbright scholarship, and there he formed the group Estrujenbank with his wife, Mariano Lozano and Dionisio Cañas. It was a group of Spanish artists recognized as one of the most important of the late twentieth century. Their creative horizons seemed to have no limits, giving rise to performances, videos as well as the creation of a museum space, the Estrujenbank Exhibition Hall. It was in this space where a new way of understanding art was elaborated, transmitting it from a point of view different from the institutional and commercial art of that time. Thanks to this artistic activity, Juan Ugalde became known in the mid-eighties with a work that explored the language proposed by abstract expressionism, although currently his works present spaces where painting and photography meet. Ugalde's work is represented in different centers of great artistic relevance such as the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo, the Museo de Bellas Artes de Álava, the Patio Herreriano in Valladolid, the Artium in Vitoria, the MUSAC in León, the Coca-Cola, La Caixa, Banesto, ICO and Marcelino Botín Foundations, and in the collection of the Bank of Spain.