JUAN AYESTA
1960 | Beasain | Basque Country
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Juan Ayesta (1960). Spanish artist, was born in Beasain, a little village in the Basque Country.
With an early vocation, he has been attracted to drawing and painting since he was a child. At the end of the seventies he achieved outstanding recognition among the painters of his generation through significant prizes in the Basque Country.
In 1983 he was awarded by the Basque Government in Fine Arts. He moved to Italy, where he lived In Florence and Miland, while closely experiencing the artistic movements as Menphis design, Italian Transvangarde, German Neoexpresionim, and so on... which left their mark on his later artwork.
After three years in Italy, he returned to the Basque Country in 1986. For three decades he has combined design with his artistic development mainly in painting. In 2018 he parks his professional design activity to dedicate himself fully to artistic activities. Currently he is dedicated to the development of his personal artistic work, developing his creations both in painting and sculpture, and some times curating exhibitions of other nearby artists.
Ayesta's artwork, especially from the mid-eighties, is a continuous plastic experimentation, where the materiality is a recurring element of his pictorial career. With special attention to composition, color and textures as basic elements in his way of expressing his concerns.
Always attentive to current events, among its main stimuli are those related to the deterioration of the environment, pollution, natural disasters and those caused by man. Topics that provoke and stimulate him to start his pieces. Another characteristic of his plastic repertoire, from a very young age, has been the fondness for encounterism, the recovery-reuse of poor, abandoned or obsolete objects. He is also stimulated by other elements – tangible and intangible – such as metaphors, signs, meanings, chance, reflection on space and time, the ephemeral, defects, vacuum, presences and absences.
In recent years, after receiving some commissions, he combines the practice of painting with sculpture. In sculpture, his plastic experimentation has led him to investigate human expression and attitude, developing works mainly in cast iron for public works and cast aluminum for interior works.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Solo exhibitions
Gipuzkoa Provincial Fund. San Sebastian, 1980
Gipuzkoa Provincial Fund. Beasain, 1980
Popular Labor Fund. Alsasua, 1983
Gipuzkoa Provincial Savings Bank. San Sebastian, 1983
Gipuzkoa Provincial Savings Bank. Zumárraga, 1983
Municipal Hall. Durango, 1984
Municipal Hall. Majadahonda-Madrid, 1984
Gaspar Gallery. Rentería, 1985
Medieval Gallery. Hondarribia, 1992
Gaspar Gallery. Rentería, 1996
Zazpi Art Gallery. Zarautz, 2010
Aroztegi Room. Bergara, 2011
Oreka Art Gallery. Soraluze, 2011
Endanea Garden Expo. Hondarribia, 2011
Lobiano Palace. Ermua, 2012
Lobiano Palace. Ermua, 2016
Vital Foundation. Vitoria-Gasteiz. 2019
Diocesan Museum. San Sebastian, 2020
Oreka Art Gallery. Soraluze, 2021
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Group exhibitions
“Guipuzcoan Landscapers”. Guipúzcoa Provincial Council. Itinerant, 1980
XXIII New Artists Contest. Guipúzcoa Provincial Council. Itinerant, 1980
XXIV New Artists Contest. Guipúzcoa Provincial Council. Itinerant, 1981
“Guipúzcoa. Painting 1959-80”. San Telmo Museum. San Sebastian, 1981
IV Barcelona-Young Painting Biennial. Royal Shipyards. Barcelona,1982
V Painting-Sculpture Biennial City of Vitoria. Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1982
"Youths. Painting 1984”. S. Fedele Cultural Center. Milan, 1984
Gure Artea Competition. Basque government. Itinerant, 1988
Collective “4 painters”. Medieval Gallery. Hondarribia, 1992
Hispanoamericano Bank Contest. Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebastian, 1992-93
Expo “3”. Gaspar Gallery. Rentería. 1995
V Plastic Arts Competition. Barrena Palace. Ordizia, 2010
Participation in Art-Innsbruck (Austria) 2021
Exhibition at Van Gogh Art Gallery. Madrid, 2022
Exhibition at Azur Art Gallery. Madrid, 2022
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Awards
3rd prize Youth Mural Contest. Beasain, 1977.
3rd prize III Youth Fine Arts Competition. San Sebastian, 1977.
1st prize XXII New Artists Contest. San Sebastian, 1979.
2nd prize VI Youth Fine Arts Contest San Sebastian, 1980.
1st prize II National Youth Plastic Arts Contest. San Sebastian, 1981.
1st prize VII Youth Fine Arts Contest. San Sebastian, 1981.
1st Prize XXV New Artists Contest. San Sebastian a, 1982.
Finalist I Bodegas Enate Painting Contest. Huesca. 2017-2018
Finalist ArtsFAD Awards 2019. Barcelona, ​​2019
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Scholarships
Fine Arts Scholarship-Painting. Basque government. Florence, 1983_1984.
Fine Arts Scholarship-Painting. Basque government. Milan, 1984_1985.
Design Scholarship. Gipuzkoa Provincial Council. Milan, 1985_1986.