Eduardo Stupía

Eduardo Stupía was born in Vicente López, Argentina, in 1951. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano in Buenos Aires. He is an essential figure in the redefinition of drawing within the field of contemporary Argentine art. He exhibits his work locally and internationally, and he has participated in competitions and salons since 1973. He was awarded the two most important art prizes his country offers: the Gran Premio del Salón Nacional and the Gran Premio del Salón Municipal Manuel Belgrano for Drawing.

Initially his language was linked to the comics, but he soon developed a distinctive, personal style through line drawing, painting, and graphics, employing visual games in which his knowledge of art history, literature, film, and his passion for jazz converge. His large-scale works are free-wheeling improvisations, offering a counterpoint between areas of colorful filigree and dense calligraphy (with Asian influences), as well as others containing empty spaces or spreading blots, shadows, textures, preliminary sketches, and layers of glaze. Almost always achromatic, Stupía uses pencils of different thicknesses, charcoal, graphite, pastels, oils, oilbars, acrylics, or synthetic enamel. It is impossible to say if his work is drawing or painting.

Stupía is a polymath. From 1992-2011 he was art director of the quarterly Diario de Poesía, and from 1999 to 2009 he designed cover art for Adriana Hidalgo Publishers. Currently he serves on the board of directors for the cultural journal Las Ranas. He has translated (from the English) novels and essays for several publishers. In the area of film, he directed media relations for several local distributors. Since 1986 he has taught Visual Arts, and he has been a judge for municipal and national competitions as well as for film festivals. He is one of the most discerning art critics on the circuit, the author of numerous reviews of artists and exhibitions, as well as a writer of articles on the esthetics and politics of art for local and international media. Together with Luis Felipe Noé, he has directed, since 2006, a cycle of drawing exhibitions at the Borges Cultural Center, La línea piensa (The Line Thinks). He is also a percussionist.

Among other distinctions, he has been honored with the Leonardo Prize for Artist of the Year, First Prize in Drawing from the Arawak Art Foundation, First Prize from the Exxon Foundation Award, and the Konex Platinum Prize. His work can be found in collections at MALBA, the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Museo de Arte Moderno, and the Museo Eduardo Sivori  (all in the city of Buenos Aires); at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Rosario (Macro), and in the Museo Caraffa in Córdoba, to name just a few. One of his installations from the 1980s was acquired by MoMA in New York and displayed between November 2007 and February 2008 as part of a collection called New Perspectives in Latin America  Art 1930-2006: Selections from a Decade of Acquisitions. The Pérez Art Museum in Miami has added one of his more recent pieces. 

In 2012 Stupía was invited to the 30th São Paulo Biennial, where he presented a retrospective exhibition. In his own country he has held individual shows at the Centro Cultural Recoleta (1999, 2006, 2011), the Centro Cultural Parque España in Rosario (2010), the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Neuquén branch (2017) and at the Colección Fortabat (2017), in addition to exhibitions at various galleries. Under the auspices of Galería Jorge Mara-La Ruche he has participated in fourteen shows at the arteBA Fair between 2004-2017; at the Pinta Air Fair (2008, New York); on eight occasions at the Madrid ARCO Fair, between 2009-2017; in ArtRio (2012, 2013); in Basel Miami from 2011-2015; and in Basel Hong Kong (2013 and 2014). Additionally he has had exhibitions at Dan Galería, São Paulo (2009); at the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia, Spain (2010); at Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery, London (2013); at various branches of Galería Xippas (2013, Punta del Este; 2014, Paris; 2015, Montevideo); and Baro Galería, São Paulo (2015).

Especially noteworthy among the collective shows, salons, and prizes in which he has participated are: Contemporary Argentine Masterworks, at the International Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (2010); Realität und Utopie, Argentinas künstlerische Laufbahn der Gegenwart, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany (2010); Biennial of Drawing and Engraving, Taipei (1999); Salón de Dibujo Fundación de Arte Arawak (Santo Domingo, 1995, 1997); 9th Triennial of India (1997); and the Bienal de Arte Interamericano (Guadalajara, Mexico, 1994).