Nacho Martín Silva

Nacho Martín Silva was born in 1977, in Madrid, where he lives and works. He graduated in Fine Arts at the Universidade Complutense of Madrid, in 2006 and he is totally dedicated to the practice of painting.

For Martín Silva, painting means nothing more than a questioning on the idea of representation on the margin of the dichotomies originality/copy, verisimilitude/simulacrum, reality/fiction. His canvases are a build-up of appropriate archive images, which after having been photographed are submitted to diverse pictorial treatments. The colours and the applied sfumatos attribute new atmospheres and the mosaic and editing effects help to transform the portrayed scenes or objects into fragments of new compositions. Episodes of art history, cinema, pop culture and of reality itself are given a new look, but as parts of other worlds or narratives that painting produces.

His most important solo exhibitions are: El Grand Estudio II e II, Espacio F. Madrid, 2011-12; This is Not a Test. Soloproject Drawing Up – Estampa, Madrid, 2014; De excrementos eran los fósiles. Espazo Miramemira, Santiago Compostela, 2015; Fictional Reality, Spring Break Art Show, New York, 2017; Il futuro non é cio che era, Box 27, Casal Solleric, Palma, 2017 and Piece of Trash, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Maiorca, 2019. The group exhibitions include: Iceberg #1, Matadero, Madrid, 2012; Crise de Identidade, Museo Fundación Eugenio Granell, Santiago Compostela, 2014; Um Lugay y el Tiempo, Espacio Odeón, Bogota, 2016; Del Rigor a la Ciencia, Centro Párrage, Múrcia, 2017 and La cuestión es ir tirando, CCEMX, Mexico City, 2020. Among the prizes he received: Prémio Estampa – Casa Velázquez, 2014, 1st Prize Pintura Mardel, 2015 and Premio Bienal Pilar Juncosa y Sotheby’s, 2017. He had artistic residences at Casa de Velázquez, 2015; Adday Centre d’art contemporani, 2016 and in Tunis, 2019. His work is represented in the following collections: Absolut, DKV, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, among others.

 

SN, November 2020