Nationality Uruguay Role Digital Artist Name Agustina Sere-Leguizamon | Known for Digital Art Alma mater University of Palermo | |
Born June 23, 1984 Montevideo, Uruguay | ||
Notable work Ensuenos Rioplatenses | ||
Agustina Casas Seré Leguizamon (born June 23, 1984) is an international award-winning digital artist. Her digital art collection "Ensueños Rioplatenses" was declared a "National Work of Tourist Interest" by the government of Uruguay, the highest artistic honor awarded by that nation (analogous to the prestigious United States National Medal of Arts). Casas was also officially declared a "Young Leader in Latin America" by the Washington, D.C.-based Inter-American Development Bank (IBD). Casas was named by the Museum of the Americas as "one of the most influential artists of 2015," and she was permanently admitted to its 100 Certified Artists Organization. Casas' work has been exhibited across the globe, including as part of Google's Project for New Media in New York and in private commissions and exhibitions by Fortune 500 companies, such as Fiat (2013) and Goodyear (2014).
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Biography
Born into a British noble family that emigrated to Uruguay in the early 19th century, Casas spent her formative years living in Bonn, Germany and The Hague, Netherlands, where her parents served as diplomats. It was in Europe, at age 8, that she developed an early passion for fine art and design. For the next two decades, Casas returned to South America to complete her studies in Argentina and Uruguay and to launch her career as an artist. As a young protegé, her talent was quickly recognized by world-renowned international artists Yaacov Agam, who gave Casas her earliest formal instruction, and Japanese artist and fashion designer Kenzo Takada, for whom she later served as Art Director for his shows in Buenos Aires and Paris. The famous Uruguayan artists Pablo Gimenez, Alvaro Amengual, and Rogelio Osorio, in particular, helped to develop Casas' painting style.
Art career
At age 24, Casas' paintings first debuted publicly in 2009 in Buenos Aires at the Castagnino Roldan Gallery. Shortly thereafter, and inspired by Andy Warhol and others, Casas began working with digital art, first by digitally transposing photographs of iconic historical figures and later by digitally reconstructing images of iconic sculptures. One of her earliest digital pieces, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality, a tribute to the heroes of the early 19th century Latin-American Wars of Independence, was curated by Google and included in its “Project for New Media” in New York later that same year.
Casas followed the success of "Liberty, Fraternity and Equality" in 2011 by releasing a collection of digital work entitled "Ensueños Rioplatenses," earning her numerous national and international awards at age 27. "Ensueños Rioplatenses" was inspired by the work of Casas' great-grandfather, the famous Argentine sculptor Gonzalo Leguizamon Pondal (1890-1944). Her work, a digitally reinterpreted collection of iconic sculpture images, paid tribute to the stylistic bond that Leguizamon Pondal shared with his contemporary, the Uruguayan sculptor Jose Luiz Zorrilla de San Martin (1891–1975), both of whom in 1931 became their respective county’s first artists to win France's National Salon of Paris Académie des Beaux-Arts prize.
Ten of the twenty-six Ensueños Rioplatenses pieces were immediately curated for Uruguay's Bicentennial, a national event commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the country's May Revolution, and Casas was named as Official Artist of the Bicentennial of Uruguay. The full collection was then displayed in a solo exhibition at both the National Museum Zorrilla and the Santos Cultural Palace in Uruguay. Within months, the entire collection was declared by Uruguay's Ministry of Culture as a "Work of National Tourist Interest," the highest artistic honor awarded by the government of Uruguay, and she was described as a "young iconic artist." Fiat, a major supporter of the exhibition at the National Museum Zorilla, also exhibited the full collection at the Fiat's prominent Stile Italia Space in Buenos Aires. First edition pieces of "Ensueños Rioplatenses," such as "Virgin Flower," were acquired by various private collectors, the National Museum Zorilla, and private foundations, such as the Rozenblum Foundation.
In 2014, after returning from a special artist residency in Rome, Italy, Casas was commissioned by Goodyear to create a three-meter tall Tree of Life made from cut, recycled tires that Casas handcrafted into geometric designs forming a mandala of colors and symbols paying homage to Goodyear’s 100-year history throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The work was unveiled at an exhibition sponsored by Goodyear and Latin Trade during the 2014 Art Basel show in Miami, Florida.
During 2015, Casas earned several new international awards and distinctions. In February, Casas was named one of the most influential artists of 2015 by the Museum of the Americas, and she was permanently admitted into its 100 Certified Artists Organization. She was selected as a winner of the 1st, 4th and 5th 2015 Showcase for New Media by Artslant in Los Angeles. In June, one of Casa's works was selected for a special exhibition of leading international artists at the Carrousel Du Louvre Art Fair at the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris, France. And in December, at private auction during the 2015 Art Basel show in Miami, Florida, Casas was commissioned to create a portrait of American actress Eva Longoria.