Collection: Aitor Saraiba
On the day we met Aitor Saraiba he was handing out drawings on the streets of Madrid as part of an artistic movement on 'la Noche en Blanco' (2009) with de art curator Rafael Doctor. Back then we didn't even know if he was coming in as one of our artists because among other things Gunter Gallery didn't exist yet.
Saraiba (Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, 1983) has grown not only as an artist that will go down in history, but as a unique creator that hoists up the value of his message from the simple and turns it into a huge blow. He has a coarse and chaotic imaginarium, complex in its approach but with an affected background full of sentiment.
A graduate in Fine Arts from the University of Cuenca, as a child what he loved to do was draw and tell stories, and that's what lies beneath his pictorial works: profound stories, autobiographical in many cases. One example are his graphic novels El hijo del Legionario y Pajarillo (Editions by Ponent), or Nada más importa (Published by Lunwerg).
He has exhibited in galleries such as Mad is Mad, Twin Gallery, Mutt, Galería Fúcares, and La Fresh Gallery, amongst others. He has also participated in artistic projects for museums such as MUSAC (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León) or the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum, the CA2M (Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo) and La Casa Encendida in Madrid.
His work is riddled with his own iconographic references from heavy metal to Nicanor Parra, and not in vain as even Axl Rose from Guns N’ Roses and the writer Antonio Muñoz Molina have his work at home. He also develops his artistic work through ceramics, performance art, and photography.
