JAVIER ARCE
Santander, Spain, 1973
Received the Fundación Botín Art Grant in 2006

Sobre lo cercano (On What Is Nearby), 2020- 2022
Sendero (Path), 2022. Oil on linen, natural eucalyptus frame. 32 x 26 cm
Vega de Pas (Vega de Pas), 2022. Oil on linen, natural hazelnut frame. 22 x 21 cm
Bambú (Bamboo), 2021. Oil on linen, natural oak frame. 35 x 27 cm.
Arthur Russell meets Angelica Sylvestris (Arthur Russell meets Angelica Sylvestris), 2020. Oil on linen, natural oak frame. 42 x 42 cm.
Jacinas, 2020. Oil on linen, natural oak frame. 40 x 40 cm.
Acquired in 2023

For several years now, Javier's artistic production has departed from the natural and social context of the shepherd's hut in the mountains of Cantabria where he lives with his family, developing a relationship with the landscape that is as formal as it is collaborative and vital. The series of oil paintings On What is Nearby reflects the forests, plants, paths, valleys, and skies that surround his hut in a way that is more dreamlike than representational.

The artist stretches the canvas on a frame fabricated from fragments of hazel, oak, ash, and eucalyptus trees from his land creating the organic and irregular forms of each canvas, generating a close and modest economy of means in which his garden, his home, and his work are intertwined.