Manolo Quejido was linked to the pro-renewal group of artists of the new Madrid figurative art movement in the late 1970s. From the outset he produced work in which commitment converged with reflection on pictorial practice as a space for resistance and transformation. The points of reference and milestones of his career include his interest in specific poetry, his involvement with the Equipo 57 group and his participation in the Automatic Generation of Art Forms seminars at Madrid University’s Computing Centre in 1973. In tandem with his work as a painter, Manolo Quejido has been involved in group products such as the setting up of the Art and Artisan Production Cooperative (1968), the Almazén de la Nave art centre (1992) and the CRUCE venue (1993) in Madrid.

During an exhibition of his work at the Buades Gallery in Madrid, art historian and critic Ángel González García (with whom he worked very closely on iconic exhibitions such as ‘1980’ and ‘Madrid D.F.’) wrote this about his work: ‘Manolo Quejido turns thirty-three in this year of 1979, a fateful, yet glorious age. If anything, Quejido has been painting feverishly and is ready to sneak into each painting everything he knows about painting; he has, reputedly, painted everything; or rather he has turned everything into painting without being overly worried about the inevitable failures that such a folly entailed.’ In fact, it is the very action of painting, the enjoyment of his trade, and his knowledge of the history of the art, of its social dimension and of its irreverent, transformative potential that has characterised the author’s work right up to his most recent output.

Manolo Quejido has exhibited at La Empírica (Granada, 2016), the São Paulo Art Museum (2008), the Havana National Museum of Fine Arts (2008), the Caracas Museum of Fine Arts (2007), Zapopan Art Museum (Jalisco, Mexico, 2006), the Andalusia Contemporary Art Centre (Seville, 2006) and the Valencia Institute of Modern Art (Valencia, 1997) among other venues and institutions. His work is part of the permanent collection at the Reina Sofía (Madrid).

Beatriz Herráez