Fabián Ugalde

In the second half of the XXth century, certain works of art transcended the realm of the gallery and museum, and became iconic in popular culture. The central tension of Fabian Ugalde’s work is the examination of factors that turn art into iconography.

Just like Pop Art appropriated comics and cartoons, Ugalde uses the classics and mixes them up with insight and humor, admiration and irony, parody and lyricism, in a place where jokes become judgment and judgement becomes a joke.

Through precise cuts guided by a reticle, Ugalde recomposes the portrait of the Girl With The Pearl Earring in an attempt to return to the origin of beauty; that is, a regression to the symmetry, rhythm and proportion governed by mathematical order. Ugalde uses distortion as a metaphor, referring to both the distorted relationship between art history and the contemporary art world, and to the difficulty that the modern spectator has finding themselves reflected in a work of art.

Ugalde is a graduate of INBA (1992-1997). Since 1998 his work has been exhibited in in a large number of museums and galleries in Mexico and abroad, in venues such as the Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris, Fr), Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro (Qro, Qro), the CAMAC art Centre (Champaigne, Fr) and the Centro de las Artes de Monterrey (NL, MEX), Museo Rufino Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (CDMX, Mexico City), Purnell Center for the Arts (Pittsburgh, USA), Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (Gran Canaria, ESP), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo MARCO (Monterrey, MEX), Mexic-Arte Museum (Austin, USA), the Museo de Arte Moderno (CDMX), Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans (New Orleans, USA), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Querétaro (Querétaro, MEX), the Blue Star Art Space (San Antonio, USA) and the Armory Center for the Arts (Pasadena, Pasadena, Mexico). Ugalde has been a member of the “Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte” on three occasions, and has received several awards throughout his artistic career. Among these are the first prize of acquisition in the “X Biennial Rufino Tamayo”, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, the 1st prize of acquisition in the 2nd National Biennial of Art Lumen and the 1st prize of acquisition in the 2nd National Biennial of Art Lumen and the 1st acquisition prize at the 2nd “Salón of October”.

Ugalde lives and works in Mexico city.