Santiago Ydañez: Myself and Others

January 22 - February 28, 2015 Opening reception January 22, 6-8PM

Dillon Gallery is pleased to announce Santiago Ydañez’s first solo exhibition, “Myself and Others.” Nature, childhood, and art history, with an ethical and political dimension are prominent subject matters in Santiago Ydañez’s works. Ydañez’s imagination is populated by living and dissected animals, landscapes and children, and is currently enriched with portraits of his influences from art history and literature. With great reverence and joy, he has painted Grosz, Beckmann, Otto Dix, Thomas Mann and other figures as his love letter to art, but also with heaviness regarding what he views as the great flaw in society of that time— non-resistance.

Bergman in The Serpent's Egg and Haneke's in The White Ribbon illustrate very well how close hell is to paradise. Bergman notes that Berlin in the 1920s began to darken to an eternal winter. Haneke takes us back to a further generation and analyzes the society that brought forth the incomprehensible. This society of “good thinking’” in the 19th Century provides Ydañez with a number of sweet motifs full of idyllic images, landscapes, poems about love and hate, and an Arcadian orgy.

For inspiration, the artist has taken books on poetry and love from the 19th Century and either "pollutedd" or "enriched" them: a beautiful package for "noble" content. The same applies to the frames, which act as the cradle or the amplifier for the paintings within. The overstraining of paradise and the metaphor of untouched, fresh-fallen snow— that infinite and antiquated white— lurks with tension when coupled with Ydañez’s darker imagery.Santiago Ydañez. Berlin 07.05.2013 Santiago Ydañez was born in Jaén, 1967. Lives and works in Berlín and Granada (Spain). Graduated in Painting from the School of Arts of Universidad of Granada, Ydañez is one of the most internationally recognized spanish artists of his generation. Santiago Ydañez was awarded the Premio de Pintura ABC in 2002, Premio de Pintura Generación 2002 - Caja Madrid, Beca del Colegio de España in París - Ministerio de Cultura in 2001 and the Beca de la Fundación Marcelino Botín in 1998. Ydañez work is represented in several Institutional Art collections such as: Fundación Botín (Santander), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), Museo Sofía Imber (Caracas, Venezuela), amongst others.He/s work is also represented in private colections in Mexico, Canada, Italia, Noruega, Alemania, Portugal y España.

Born in Jaén in 1967, Ydañez currently lives and works in both Berlin and Granada. Ydañez is one of the most internationally recognized Spanish artists of his generation. The recipient of the Premio de Pintura award (2002), Premio de Pintura Generación (2002), the Beca del Colegio de España in Paris (2001) and the Beca de la Fundación Marcelino Botín (1998). Ydañez's work is represented in major institutional collections around the world including the Fundación Botín (Santander), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid), and the Museo Sofía Imber (Caracas).