Mexico City, 1985
Xertu moved to the Netherlands in 2004. After he graduated from
the Rietveld Academy, he developed his painterly visual language working within the
performing arts, where he worked both as a designer and created works that
experimented with the medium of theater and dance. His scenic artworks have been
shown in the Dutch pavilion of the Venice Biënnale and Museum Boijmans van
Beuningen.
In his pictorial work, Xertu combines the analogue and the digital;
photographing models, painting them, using Photoshop to decide the composition of
the surrounding nature, and meticulously gluing plants directly onto the canvas to
create large scale paintings with stark compositions. Drawing from mythological
references, he explores themes of time and ageing, incorporating the decay of real
plants as elements of transformation, which can take several years to happen.
He was nominated for the Royal Award for Modern Painting 2019 and was
awarded the Audience Prize.
Luis Xertu
11 Mar 2023 - 29 Apr 2023
