Jesús María (Kutxu) Otamendi
Zarautz (Gipuzkoa) 1962 - Donostia / San Sebastian 1993

Jesús María Otamendi, nicknamed Kutxu, and his work are linked to other Basque artists of his generation, such as Manu Muniategiandikoetxea, José Ramón Amondarain, Bingen de Pedro and Iñaki Imaz, and to the Arteleku Art Centre in San Sebastián, where he trained at the studios of artists Rafael Canogar, Marta Cárdenas, Alfonso Albacete and Mitsuo Miura. Kutxu Otamendi's career was cut short suddenly at the age of 31. His work was focused on painting from his beginnings in the town of Bergara in Gipuzkoa.

He painted mainly large-format pictures, in a style that was in fashion in the 1980s, aligned with the forms of movements such as the trans-avant-garde in Italy. His work has a character all of its own, which he achieved through spaces laden with references and symbols and almost mythological atmospheres tinged with melancholy. Critic Miguel Fernández Cid referred to his work as 'suspended painting, with elements that absorb and structure it'. It is mysterious and subjective, and stands out for his use of a technique described as 'rudimentary', almost like a speech cut off, with an end product resulting from 'apparent carelessness'.

Solo exhibitions of Kutxu Otamendi's work were staged at the Emilio Navarro Gallery (Madrid, 1992), the Aula de Cultura Bilbao (1991), the Dieciséis Gallery (Donostia/San Sebastián, 1991), the La Pecera Gallery (Irun, Gipuzkoa, 1990) and the Sanz-Enea Kultur Etxea (Zarautz, Gipuzkoa, 1988). In 2012 the Sanz-Enea Kultur Etxea staged a retrospective of his work. An anthological exhibition had been organised at the Aroztegi Aretoa in Bergarab the previous year.

Beatriz Herráez