Ignacio Sáez
Ignacio Sáez's work is always based on the body, understood as a territory of action and learning. The pictorial gesture, the result of physical surrender, becomes a sign that reflects both the transformation of the material and that of the artist himself in his creative process. In this sense, his work can be conceived as an education of the body, simultaneous to its submission to the pictorial sign.
Two complementary tendencies coexist in his practice: one of a representational nature and the other performative. This tension is particularly visible in supports such as photography or video, where the referent emerges more clearly, while in his drawings it remains veiled under layers of wefts and transparencies. In them, the flatness of the signs and the desire to reach a figurative and symbolic referent configure an ambiguous territory, in which the hidden becomes as relevant as the visible. Each work is presented as an autonomous fragment, but at the same time reveals the need to articulate links that connect apparently unconnected levels within a gestural and unitary whole. This fragmentariness is not insufficiency, but a device that broadens the field of reading of his work.
With an extensive career, Ignacio Sáez has established himself as an essential figure in the artistic context of the Basque Country. His influence does not lie in his adherence to passing trends, but in the construction of a singular poetics that has served as a point of reference for several generations of artists.
Ignacio Sáez (Bilbao, 1971). He has a degree in Fine Arts from the UPV (University of the Basque Country), and has completed his training by participating in different grants such as the Bilboarte grant, 2005 and 2002, the Juan de Otaola and Pérez de Saracho grant, 2003, the plastic arts grant from the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, 1997, and the creation grant from the BBK Foundation, 1995. Some of his latest exhibitions are ‘She says’ (Artium Museum, Vitoria, 2005), Ventana 244 Gallery (Brooklyn, NY, 2011), ‘Cohibido a los 20’ (Bulegoa, Bilbao, 2020) and ‘BBKateak Van Dyck-Sáez’ (Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, 2022).
