Pablo Siquier

Pablo Siquier was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1961.  He is one of the great Argentine artists to emerge from the decade of the 1980s. He studied at the Escuela Superior de Bellas Artes Prilidiano Pueyrredón and at the workshops of Pablo Bobbio and Araceli Vázquez. He was a member of Grupo de la X, showing his work with them in 1987. Currently he shares a workshop with another member of that group, Jorge Macchi, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Crespo.

Siquier’s iconic works, inspired by geometry, are as monumental as they are minimalist. His style is immediately recognizable: intricate constructions made of black lines on a white background; he abandoned color in 1993. His system of representation consists of the shadow of a white object against a white background, its shape becoming evident only through the darkness it projects.

At first it was just a symbol. Then the complexity of his shape systems began to increase. At first there were acrylic paintings. Later he began using self-adhesive vinyl. Sometimes his work invades the surrounding space in navigable installations made of iron, or alternatively expanding in the form of charcoal directly applied to walls. Demanding the highest standards of himself, he insists that each exhibition mark an evolution vis-à-vis the one, single painting he claims to be eternally creating. Methodical and detail-minded, he chooses the most difficult path: for example, he is capable of obsessive feats like the creation of a 13-meter-high mural made of lines calculated to the exact millimeter; a three-ton iron installation; or another project made of 5000 small, hand-painted wooden rods, each with 50 colored dots.

His repertory arises from observing the façades and the combination of ornaments he watched for years from bus windows. In his creative process, he is interested in architectural elements, decorative motifs, abstract representations of the urban fabric, and signs developed by design. His geometry is infused with emotional content, like the drawing of a tablecloth from his childhood or the grill of an automobile. He is also inspired by minimalist music and classical literature. But above all, Siquier translates the spirit of the city into lines, while at the same time embellishing it: his murals – whether made of ceramic, painted, baked aluminum, vinyl, or enamel – can be found in emblematic places like the Carlos Pellegrini station of the subway “B” line, Güemes Sanatorium, Puerto Madero, and the Centro Cultural General San Martín.

His indoor venues have included one-man shows at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, the Museo Nacional Centro de Artes Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Centro Cultural Recoleta in Buenos Aires, and the Museo Pedro de Osma in Lima, among others. He represented Argentina in the Mercosur Biennials in Porte Alegre (1999) and São Paulo (2004), Brazil; Havana, Cuba (2006); and Cuenca, Ecuador (1991). His work forms part of public and private collections in Brazil, France, Spain, the United States, Peru, Chile, and Argentina.

Among other galleries, he has shown his work at Ruth Bencazar, Buenos Aires; Baró, São Paulo; Karpio, San José, Costa Rica; Xippas, Paris and Geneva; Sicardi, Houston; and Von Hartz, Miami. He has been honored with the Harrods Art Prize, Salon Gunther (1991); the Spanish Ministry of Culture Fellowship (1991);  the Fondo Nacional de las Artes Fellowship (1995); First Prize in the Novartis competition (1997); Honorable Mention in the Constantini Prize competition (1997); the Young Artist of the Year Prize from the Art Critics’ Association (1998); a Jury Honorable Mention in the Constantini Prize competition (1999 and 2000); the Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship (2002); and the Konex Platinum Prize for Painting: 2007-2011 (2012), among others.

Despite having been mostly self-taught, he has enjoyed a long teaching career. He is adjunct professor and Forbes Chair of Graphic Design since 1999 at the F.A.D.U. of the University of Buenos Aires, where he has taught since 1988. He has also held the titles of adjunct professor and Bisollino Chair of Painting Development at the Universidad Nacional de Artes since 2004, where additionally he teaches a Theoretical Production workshop. In 2010 he directed the Artwork Analysis Seminar for the Artists’ Program at the Universidad Tocuato Di Tella.