Ignacio Rodés Medero won the latest edition of the Guernica Salon, promoted and hosted by the Hermanos Saíz Association (AHS in Spanish) in the territory, with "Tensión." The portrait painted in oil on canvas secured him the prize among 13 young artists participating in the competition.
“I wanted to give one of the most widely used pictorial genres in art history a certain ambiguity through the design of the image, using a photograph from the 1980s. Although receiving an award is always encouraging, what really motivates me is the relationship between the viewers and the work. For me, art is an obsession, a means of expression, and a way of doing things right,” he told 26.
The young creator, inspired by Greek sculpture, Spanish Baroque, and artists such as José de Ribera, Cosme Proenza, Colleen Barry, Pedro Pablo Oliva, and others, defines his style in an interesting symbiosis between past and present, something that is beginning to attract public attention as a distinctive symbol of his work.
It is no surprise that the jury of the competition, composed this time of José Manuel Mayo, Ernesto Lapinet, and Luis Antonio González Rodríguez, recognized in his work his precise mastery of color, his ability to dialogue with tradition while introducing contemporary features, his technical virtuosity, the psychology implicit in his representation, and the expressiveness of his message, among other elements.
While Ignacio works on his next exhibition, which will also include Tensión, others like him were encouraged at Guernica by receiving similar recognition. This is the case of Leandro Pérez Figueredo, who won second place, and the brothers Aram Joao and Almir Mestre, who shared third place. In addition, Rafael Alarcón Rodríguez and José Ignacio Díaz Hidalgo received honorable mentions. At the same time, some institutions awarded collateral incentives.
Defending the "Guernica" in a land with values from the perspective of the visual arts is a guarantee for the future, especially in times of such trivialization of culture and foreignizing traits. That the virtuosos of the brush are committed to this, despite material and other shortcomings, is encouraging and necessary.
