Juan Gallego obtained a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University in Madrid in 1998, majoring in Painting. He obtained his PhD in 2004. Since then he has combined painting with his work as a lecturer in Pictorial Techniques at the Felipe II University and Higher Education Centre in Aranjuez, an offshoot of the Complutense University. Ever since his first series Uncertainty Principle (2004-2005), his painting has contained references to photographic images which cannot be seen as such because they were produced in unsuitable conditions (taken under water or blown up and their subjects fragmented). This creates a play of tension between the organic and the inorganic, between the mobile and the static, between the hyper-real and the abstract in works where nature gives seductive, dreamlike hints of concepts of classical beauty in a sensual deployment of colours in oils. His series Memento mori (2006-2009) takes enlarged images of withered, almost dead flowers as the basis for a reflection on time and, metaphorically, on the much vaunted death of painting. In his more recent works, under the title Brand Spain (2012-2015), he switches to images of desolate landscapes that reflect the social and economic crisis in Spain. They are produdced with more gestural, materic, aggressive strokes.
Since his first solo exhibition at the Fernando Pradilla Gallery in Madrid (2005), his works have been shown at numerous exhibitions and events and he has taken part in several editions of the ARCO art fair in Madrid,in the Bogotá and Toronto International Art Fairs and in painting-based events such as the Villa de Madrid, Caja de Madrid and BMW fairs.
Juan Gallego obtained a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University in Madrid in 1998, majoring in Painting. He obtained his PhD in 2004. Since then he has combined painting with his work as a lecturer in Pictorial Techniques at the Felipe II University and Higher Education Centre in Aranjuez, an offshoot of the Complutense University. Ever since his first series Uncertainty Principle (2004-2005), his painting has contained references to photographic images which cannot be seen as such because they were produced in unsuitable conditions (taken under water or blown up and their subjects fragmented). This creates a play of tension between the organic and the inorganic, between the mobile and the static, between the hyper-real and the abstract in works where nature gives seductive, dreamlike hints of concepts of classical beauty in a sensual deployment of colours in oils. His series Memento mori (2006-2009) takes enlarged images of withered, almost dead flowers as the basis for a reflection on time and, metaphorically, on the much vaunted death of painting. In his more recent works, under the title Brand Spain (2012-2015), he switches to images of desolate landscapes that reflect the social and economic crisis in Spain. They are produdced with more gestural, materic, aggressive strokes.
Since his first solo exhibition at the Fernando Pradilla Gallery in Madrid (2005), his works have been shown at numerous exhibitions and events and he has taken part in several editions of the ARCO art fair in Madrid,in the Bogotá and Toronto International Art Fairs and in painting-based events such as the Villa de Madrid, Caja de Madrid and BMW fairs.