The Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Santander y Cantabria (MAS) will host a new session of the 'encounters with artists' programme on 3 November, featuring artists Darío Urzay and Quique Ortiz. The event is scheduled for 18:30, with free entry available until capacity is reached and no prior registration required.
Noemí Méndez, the councillor for culture, emphasised that this initiative aims to bring contemporary art closer to the public, providing an opportunity to learn about the experiences, concerns, and working processes of artists from different generations. This session of the 'intergenerational talks' will bring together two artists whose careers and methodologies differ yet share a common interest in transforming images and exploring the potential of painting to alter meaning and perception.
Darío Urzay focuses on the relationships between painting, photography, and digital processes, employing methods that transform images as they transition from one medium to another. In contrast, Quique Ortiz typically works with archival images and visual materials, intervening through painting to alter their original elements and explore the connections between the visible, the suggested, and memory.
The encounter will address topics such as the influence of creative processes on image construction, the decisions involved in their transformation, and the role of the viewer in interpretation. Each artist will present their background, key influences, and the processes that underpin their work. Following their presentations, both artists will engage in an open conversation with the audience, sharing experiences and discussing the similarities and differences in their artistic practices.
About Darío Urzay
Born in Bilbao in 1958, Darío Urzay studied Fine Arts at the University of the Basque Country, where he also taught before moving to London, invited by Delfina Studios, and later to New York. His artistic journey has evolved from hyperrealism to a focus on the interplay between painting, photography, and new technologies. His practice also includes drawing and installation, employing techniques that blend traditional and digital methods, challenging the boundaries between different image production media.
In 1997, he received a grant from the Fundación Botín and became one of six Spanish artists included in the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Throughout his career, he has exhibited in institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, and the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. In 2005, he was awarded the National Graphic Art Prize, and the following year, he received an award at the Beijing Biennale. Between 2023 and 2024, the Kubo Kutxa Hall in San Sebastián dedicated an exhibition titled 'In a fraction [Reversible]' to him, showcasing twenty-five years of his artistic production.
About Quique Ortiz
Quique Ortiz, born in Santander in 1988, holds a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country and a master's degree in Artistic Production and Research from the University of Barcelona. His work primarily revolves around painting, graphic techniques, and drawing within the realm of contemporary figuration, investigating the relationships between image, memory, and the materiality of the pictorial gesture. He often starts with archival images, photographs, and visual materials sourced from the internet and other publications, which he transforms through painting intervention.
Through these processes, Ortiz explores the tensions between beauty and unease, the visible and the suggested, creating scenes open to various interpretations. Throughout his career, he has held solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows and national competitions, as well as in curatorial projects developed in independent galleries and exhibition spaces. He has also received grants for national and international artist residency programmes and has undertaken creative stays and cultural exchanges abroad. His work has been recognised in various visual arts competitions and is part of both public and private institutional collections.
