Santiago Ydañez

SANTIAGO YDAÑEZ (Jaén, 1969).
Untitled, 2023.
Acrylic on canvas.
Signed and dated on the back.
Measurements: 90,5 x 60 cm.

Santiago Ydáñez studied Fine Arts at the University of Granada, and later expanded his training in workshops with Juan Genovés, Alfonso Albacete, Nacho Criado, Fernando Castro Flórez and Mitsuo Miura. He was also awarded scholarships from Mojácar (1997), the Marcelino Botín Foundation (1998) and the Colegio de España in Paris (2001), and the first prizes for Painting Generation 2002 Caja Madrid and ABC of the same year. In 1993 he became known by taking part in the collective exhibition "Jóvenes Artistas Andaluces", held in Malaga, and the following year he made his individual debut with an exhibition organized by the Diputación de Albacete. In 1995 he held a personal exhibition in Granada, at the Palacio Condes de Gabia, and in 1999 he exhibited for the first time at the Luis Adelantado gallery in Valencia, where he would continue to show his work in the following years. Although he had already taken part in group exhibitions and fairs in the United States, Portugal and Latin America in the late nineties, Ydáñez made the definitive international leap in 2000, when he held his first two solo exhibitions abroad, at the Studio d'Arte Cannaviello in Milan and the Baró Senna gallery in Sao Paulo. That same year he took part in the FIAC in Paris with the Luis Adelantado gallery. Since then he continues to exhibit individually throughout Spain, without neglecting his personal exhibitions abroad: Monterrey, Trieste, Lisbon, Porto, Oaxaca, Toronto, Berlin, The Hague, Munich, Milan and other cities. He will also take part in important group exhibitions such as the Alexandria Biennial (2001), "Ich have keine idea" (Bergen, Norway, 2007), "Are you famous" (Berlin, 2009) or the one held in 2009 at the Cervantes Institute in New York. Also, since the late nineties his work will be present in the most important international art fairs, including Art Chicago, ARCO, Art Miami, FIAC, Art Basel, Miart and others. Santiago Ydáñez is currently represented in the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Provincial Councils of Jaén, Segovia and Albacete, the Museums of Mojácar and Zabaleta, the Botín Foundation, the Faculty of Fine Arts of Granada, the Contemporary Art Collection of the Junta de Castilla y León, the Sofía Imber Museum of Caracas, the L'Oréal Collection and the Municipal Museum of Madrid, the Martínez-Guerricabeitia Foundation of Valencia, the ABC and Caja Madrid Collections, the Centro Atlántico Museo de Arte Contemporáneo of Las Palmas, the CAM Collection, the Collection of the Community of Murcia and many others, both public and private. In his work the artist approaches the human being from an expressionist point of view in both form and substance. Expressive, large faces, which seem to cry out in anguish, populate his canvases, made with a broad and sure stroke that only takes on its full meaning at a certain distance from the work.