Biography
I studied at P. Pueyrredón National School from 1977 to 1981, where I obtained my high school degree. I assisted to Pablo Bobbio’s artist’s studio when I was 17 years old, where I stayed for 7 years. I worked in Clarín newspapers as a cartoonist and, as well, I worked as an illustrator in other graphic media. I was also a carpenter, and I did wood toys, musical instruments and furniture. My first painting exhibition was held at the Loirolay Gallery in 1981, and from then kept painting (and living of it) but without doing any exhibition for 10 years, until I was invited to present my mechanical objects in what would be my second exhibition in Houston, USA, in 1992. From then on, for 10 years in a row, I made regular presentations in the United States in several galleries and institutions but basically in the New Gallery of Houston, directed by Thom Andriola. From 2000, I started to make more regular exhibitions in my own country. My artwork is now represented by Braga Menéndez Gallery here in Argentina and by New Gallery of Houston, in the United States.
I have worked in several media and with a variety of formats, such as installatrions (“Muñeco”, Plaza Constitución 1982), mechanical objects (“Pinturas Sobre Estructuras Mecánicas”, Solo Show New Gallery Houston, Texas (1992); abstract and symbolic artwork (“HOMME”, Recoleta Cultural Center, Argentina 11/ 2000.), and the last and more recent artworks are figurative pieces (“Irlanda”, Del infinito arte Gallery, Argentina 11/2003 and “Onda Roja”, Empatía Gallery, Argentina, 3,4/2007).
I participated in the Cill Rialag Project, which consisted of a residency of 2 months in Ireland (in 2003 and 2005). This project activated directly my last series of works, which are linked to my study of figuration and landscape. The same happened in my residency in Tuscany, Italy, where for 6 months I developed the commission of a work for a chapel located nearby Castellana in Chianti. And in the most recent events, it has been of great influence the journeys I did to India and Nepal (in the last years) and to have contact with the Tibetan culture and its ancestral wisdom in the practice of meditation.
My recent exhibitions in Argentina and abroad include: “22x28”, Braga Menéndez Gallery, Buenos Aires, 3/2008; Trabucco Awards, Edition 2008, Borges Cultural Center, Mention of Honour in Painting; “Por que Pintura”, F.N.A., Buenos Aires, 10/2007; “Pampa, Ciudad y Suburbio”, IMAGO, Buenos Aires, 4,5/2007; “Onda Roja”, Empatía Gallery, Buenos Aires, 3,4/2007; “Verde que te quiero verde”, Recoleta Cultural Center, Cronopios Hall, Buenos Aires, 4/2004; “Roma”, ILA, Italy, 3/2004; “Irlanda”, Del infinito arte Gallery, Buenos Aires, 11/2003; “Arte Dante 2003” Painting Award, Second Prize, Dante Alighieri Association, Argentina 10/ 2003; “Etase” GroupShow, Espase Accattone, Paris, France, 7/2003; “Residencia de un mes en el Cill Riallaig Project" (one month residency in the Cill Riallaig Project), Ireland, 7/2003; “Estrellas Negras”, French Alliance Buenos Aires, 7/2003; “Nature”, New Gallery, Houston, Texas, United States, 4/2003; “Arte Argentino en Turquía”, Ankara, Turkey, 9/2002; “Texas in New York”, StefanStux Gallery, New York, United States, 6,7/2002; “Exposición de Arte Argentino y Fotografía”, Al-Asad Public Library, Damascus, Syria, 2/2002; “Representación Arg. VII Bienal Int. de Cuenca”, Modern Art Museum, Cuenca, Ecuador, 11/2001 a 1/2002; “Representación Arg. 10th Triennale-India”, Lalhit Kala Academy, New Delhi, 1,2/2001; “HOMME”, Recoleta Cultura Center 11/2000.
I work and live in Buenos Aires.
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.
AVB. I believe this work has that blend of strength almost rude in its materiality and the trite and almost soulless of an image so common as ordinary, in contrast to a treatment that makes it a stranger and even mysterious, as if it belongs more to illusion’s fleeting world than to the material one. It makes me feel calm and disturbing at the same time, like something at the edge of exploding. Something that seems like simple and direct, and at the same tome suggests itself as something ungraspable and hidden.
It belongs to the series “Onda Roja entre Constitución y Longchamps”, in which I painted the images that I captured with my camera from my car, on my way from Longchamps to the city center. I was trying to capture, altering as little as possible all that was presented by my side, every time I was stopped by a red traffic light. I tried this way to generate images that would elude, a little bit at least, my own selection. It was painted in oil over fabric, using the image on my computer’s screen as model. I used a grid in the picture as well as in the fabric where I copied the image.
2. In general terms, how would you suggest to approach your work?
I always felt that to me painting was just a reflex, or a simple consequence of a certain way to contemplate the world. I like it very much when people stop and take the time to contemplate. And I like the fact that my artwork invites the contemplation and that whoever is watching, accepts that invitation.
