Néstor Sanmiguel is known for his late vocation as an artist. It might be more accurate, however, to say that he (voluntarily) took an unconventional trajectory in his career. He trained as a tailor at the Official School of Madrid and worked as a pattern maker in a textile factory until the end of the 1990s. In 1985 he and artists Rufo Criado, Rafael Lamata and Jesús Max, among others, founded the artists' collective A Ua Crag, a gallery-space in Aranda de Duero. From then until he left the group in 1991, he promoted the Red District and II Partido de la Montaña [Second Mountain Party] factions, which were largely involved with performative art with a strong element of political criticism.
In the 1990s, he struck out on a solo career, developing work that defied classification. From the outset, one can see the construction of his own language, in which he combined literature and pictorial practise. As he put it, the resources he constantly included in his images were 'quotations, symbols and marginal notes'. In 1998, Sanmiguel Diest exhibited Esferas doradas y armas de saqueo en las puertas del río [Golden spheres and Weapons of Pillage at the River Gates] at the Galería Trayecto in Vitoria-Gasteiz. It marked his first use of a grid, a feature that was to become a constant of all his subsequent work.
Néstor Sanmiguel Diest has exhibited regularly with Galería Maisterravalbuena in Madrid and Carlier/Gebauer in Berlin. His work has also been shown in institutions and art centres such as the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2016); La Conservera (Murcia, 2015); the Spanish Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires (2014); Montehermoso Cultural Centre (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2012); and the Castilla y León Museum of Contemporary Art (León, 2007).
Néstor Sanmiguel is known for his late vocation as an artist. It might be more accurate, however, to say that he (voluntarily) took an unconventional trajectory in his career. He trained as a tailor at the Official School of Madrid and worked as a pattern maker in a textile factory until the end of the 1990s. In 1985 he and artists Rufo Criado, Rafael Lamata and Jesús Max, among others, founded the artists' collective A Ua Crag, a gallery-space in Aranda de Duero. From then until he left the group in 1991, he promoted the Red District and II Partido de la Montaña [Second Mountain Party] factions, which were largely involved with performative art with a strong element of political criticism.
In the 1990s, he struck out on a solo career, developing work that defied classification. From the outset, one can see the construction of his own language, in which he combined literature and pictorial practise. As he put it, the resources he constantly included in his images were 'quotations, symbols and marginal notes'. In 1998, Sanmiguel Diest exhibited Esferas doradas y armas de saqueo en las puertas del río [Golden spheres and Weapons of Pillage at the River Gates] at the Galería Trayecto in Vitoria-Gasteiz. It marked his first use of a grid, a feature that was to become a constant of all his subsequent work.
Néstor Sanmiguel Diest has exhibited regularly with Galería Maisterravalbuena in Madrid and Carlier/Gebauer in Berlin. His work has also been shown in institutions and art centres such as the Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, 2016); La Conservera (Murcia, 2015); the Spanish Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires (2014); Montehermoso Cultural Centre (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 2012); and the Castilla y León Museum of Contemporary Art (León, 2007).