Manuel Sáez

Manuel Sáez (* 1961 in Castellón) is a plastic artist from Spain and belongs to the generation of artists of the 1980s. Since 1984 he lives and works in Valencia.

Life

Sáez counts up to be the most important artists around the turn of the century and, according to the Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europeo - Americana is Manuel Sáez on a sensual and psychological way to the world of objects and portraits.

In the 1980s he worked in Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid. During this time, the artist examined the playful image of the painting and its history with the help of the flawless language of comics, media and art history.

This period correspond to the series Calvo, Bodegones, Árboles, Aviones and Arquitecturas. In 1990 he resided in Rome on a scholarship from the Academia de España en Roma and performed a series of portraits entitled Biografía no autorizada. In 1992, he created the series Dioptrias and 1993 Aquiles. In 1995 he moved to the Dominican Republic. He painted watercolors and drawings of objects from the tropical landscape that a year later exhibited in the Universitat de València. Since 2004, his work focused more and more on the study of flawless drawing and portrait series, where he has worked since 1990.

Manuel Sáez has exhibited both in Spain and abroad. He also has different interventions in public space carried out including the huge ceramic mosaic from 1884 m² for the Agora of the University of Castellón.

His work has been exhibited both in museums and in public institutions. 1996 held his first retrospective, Colección Exclusiva 1984-1995, in Valencia Club Diario Levante, Circulo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, in the Sala Verónicas in Murcia, in the Provincial de Castellón and Brocense in Cáceres. This was followed by individual and group exhibitions such as 1991 the Fundació La Caixa in Valencia, 1996 at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno ( CAAM ), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 2000 at the Museo Rufino Tamayo in Ciudad de México, 2000 at the Valencian Institute of Art modern in Valencia, 1999 at the Museum of modern and Contemporary Art (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo ) in Montevideo, 2003 in Atarazanas in Valencia and 2008 in the Sala Parpalló in Valencia.

In his career he has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Premio emerge Icaro, Grupo 16, Madrid, 1990, the scholarship Creación Artística Banesto, 1989 el salón de Otoño de Sagunto, 1983 and a grant from the Academia Española de Bellas Artes de Roma in 1990.

Works and projects

Sáez has developed a personal aesthetic, characterized by an immaculate drawing with which he subjects the world of color, shape, nature and objects of an ongoing investigation. His work draws from a poetics that expresses the everyday and the intimate. About him artists and critics have written as Quico Rivas, Victoria Combalía, Katia Carcia - Antón, William Jeffett, Guillermo Pérez Villalta, Kenny Scharf, Juan Manuel Bonet, Nicolás Sanchez Durá, Salvador Albiñana, Teresa Blanch, Aurora Gracía, Nuria Enguita and Omar Calabrese.

Series of portraits and illustrations

In 1990 he started in the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome with the portrait series, where he continues to work. Will represent personalities of different disciplines Francisco Brines, Vicente Gallego, Carlos Marzal, Albert Oehlen, Antoni Miralda, Andreu Alfaro, Jordi Teixidor, Carmen Alborch, Carmen Calvo Sáenz de Tejada, Carlos Pazos, José Maria Sicilia, Juanjo Estellés, Fabrizio Zilibotti, Ana de Miguel or pink Ulpiano. Among his outstanding book illustrations include, among others those for the book of poems by Carlos Marzal Ánima Mía in 2009 and for the history Bernardo Atxaga for the magazine Ronda Iberia in 1994.

Agora mosaic of the University Jaume I de Castellón

In 2003 he realized a mosaic of 1848 m² from 13 046 individual parts to 33 × 33 cm and 14,884 items at 16:25 × 16:25 cm in white and blue porcelain sandstone for the Agora of the University Jaume I de Castellón. The image depicts a white glove, symbolizing knowledge.

Works in museums and public collections

• Academia Española de Bellas Artes, Rome.
• Fundación Telefónica, Madrid.
• Banco de España, Madrid.
• Fundación Argentaria, Madrid.
• Fundanció " La Caixa", Barcelona.
• Museo de Bellas Artes de Castellón.
• Ayuntamiento de Castellón.
• Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Villafamés.
• Bancaja, Valencia.
• Colección Renfe, Valencia.
• Caja Postal, Madrid.
• Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, IVAM, Valencia.
• Banco Español de Crédito, Madrid.
• Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, Madrid.
• Fundación Coca -Cola, Madrid.
• Universitat de València.
• Fundación Prosegur, Madrid.
• Cortes Valencianas, Valencia.
• Colegio de Arquitectos de Castellón.
• Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.
• Universitat Jaume I, Castellón.
• Museo de Bellas Artes San Pio V, Valencia.
• Provincial de Valencia.