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Nacho Martín Silva

From concerns linked to notions such as the fragmentary, simulation and representation or likeliness and using the History of Art, that of humankind and the creative process itself as axes, “Martín Silva’s painting could be classified as haulage and reconsideration. Haulage, not just because, even though the term is architectural, the artist might take pre-established images, but because his studio seems to become a kind of warehouse or storeroom, where images and works of art – or attempts thereat - are accumulated, and where maybe, years later, they might find meaning where there was none when they were put there, rejected because of their lack of pertinence and opportunity.

The studio becomes a kind of wine cellar; these materials see time pass by and the artist comes back to them, back to the barrel to finally decant and reco- ver them. This also means that the studio is a kind of cartography archive; amidst all the disorder, in the process of searching, or an almost disinterested drifting through everything accumulated there, the artist comes across waivers or feints which over time or due to the circumstances of each project, could turn them into valid and pertinent materials: they are like flashbacks, a return to the past through these remains that show him how recently opened solutions and recently trodden pathways (…)”.

His constant concern with how to face underlying themes through panting results in a polysemic practice that crystalizes in different forms. Nacho Martín Silva has a degree in Fine Arts by the Complutense University of Madrid. Among his most recent projects are Il future non è ciò che era, curated by Tolo Cañellas at Box 27 (Palma); Tirar del hilo hasta quedar ciego at JosédelaFuente (Santander) in 2017; and El Gran Estudio, curated by Ángel Calvo Ulloa at Centro de Arte de Alcobendas (Madrid) in 2016. He has participated in group exhibitions in museums, galleries and international institutions such as the CICA Palais El Andelliya (Túnez), Spring Break Art Show at New York, Sobering Gallery in Paris, Odeon Space in Bogotá, Centro Párraga in Murcia, Centro Centro Madrid, Matadero Madrid, CGAC, OTR, among others. His work has been shown at recent editions of ARTBO (Bogotá), ARCO Madrid and ARCO Lisboa. He was awarded with the Pilar Juncosa Prize and Sotheby’s  Artistic Creation Prize, Estampa-Casa de Velázquez Prize and Absolut-Jugada a 3bandas Prize.

A monographic work was dedicated to his practice, Pocket Series: Nacho Martín Silva by Juan Francisco Rueda, edited by Nocapaper in 2016. Additionally, he was included in David Barro’s 2014 book Antes de irse. 40 ideas sobre pintura, ed. Arte Contemporáneo y Energía A.I.E and Dardo Editorial, 2013.

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