Nationality Mexico Movements Realism, Figurative art | Known for Painting | |
 | ||
People also search for Sergio Fernández Cárdenas, Arturo González Cosío, Gabriel Bernal Granados, Martina Corgnati | ||
Fernando Leal Audirac (born 16 November 1958 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a visual artist, painter, sculptor, etcher and designer. He is a specialist of classical painterly techniques, such as fresco, encaustic, egg tempera, oil, that he reinterprets in a contemporary key, combining them with modern technology.
Contents
- Tramontana in milano fluidensity by fernando leal audirac
- Life
- Transportable frescos
- Oil paintings
- Encaustic
- Egg tempera
- Multimedia
- Design
- Personal Exhibitions selected
- Collective exhibitions selected
- Monographs
- Exhibition catalogues
- Works illustrated by Fernando Leal Audirac
- References
Tramontana in milano fluidensity by fernando leal audirac
Life
Fernando Leal Audirac was born in Mexico City into a family of artists. His father Fernando Leal (1896–1964) was one of the founders of the Mexican Muralist movement of the Twenties.
From 1974 to 1978, Fernando Leal Audirac studied Medieval and Renaissance painterly techniques under the direction of Master Guillermo Sánchez Lemus. Together with Professor Manuel Serrano, he founded in 1978 the "Restauro" workshop in Mexico City, specializing in the research of contemporary reinterpretation of the classic artistic techniques such as fresco, encaustic, egg tempera and oil painting.
In the period from 1980 to 1985 he practiced lithography and etching at the "Taller de Gráfica Popular" with Master Printmaker José Sánchez.
1989 to 1993, he was a founding member and academic tutor of the Curatorial Commission of the Mexican National Council for the Arts (Comisión Consultiva del FONCA).
In the 1980s, he founded an intellectual Salon (the Friday Group) at his home, attended by prominent personalities of the international cultural scene, among whom: Juan Acha, Arturo González Cosío, Ernesto de la Peña, Michael Tracy, José Luis Cuevas, Miguel Peraza, Phil Kelly, Mahia Biblos, Jens Jesen, Pierre Restany, Shiffra Goldman, Arnold Belkin, Francis Alÿs, and Jan William.
In 1993 he was the first artist of his generation to have a solo exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. In 1995 he represented Mexico at the Centennial of the Venice Biennale, where he exhibited again in 2001. In 1996 he was appointed guest professor at École nationale supérieure d'art in Nancy, France.
He has shown his works in galleries and museums in the US, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Hungary, Romania, Korea and Latin America. He has written numerous essays on art and literature and participated in several international symposia regarding art, science and environment organized by the European Environmental Tribunal.
Since 1993, he lives between Milan, Italy and Mexico City.
Transportable frescos
Leal Audirac has developed a particular type of transportable frescoes on double-curved synthetic surfaces which constitute a fragment of an imaginary architectural space. He has executed in 2004 the life "Portrait of Pope John Paul II" which is considered as one of the largest papal portraits in the world.
Oil paintings
Two oil paintings that are central in his production are Image of the Absolute (1977–1991), which was exhibited in 1992 in the Frankfurter Kunstverein and The Shadow and the Night with which he participated in the Venice Biennale in 1995. Juan Acha, Jorge Juanes, Peter Weiermair and Pierre Restany have written extensively on these works. (10)
Encaustic
This ancient Greek-Roman technique, revitalized by 20th century American artists such as Fernando Leal and Jasper Johns, has been central to Leal Audirac's research. In November 2010 he has exposed a new series of large format encaustics at Art Seefeld Galerie in Zürich. The Value of a Brushstroke und The Gardens of Erbaluce belong to this collection.
Egg tempera
Focusing on a synthesis between Western and Eastern traditions, Leal Audirac executed in 1994 the painterly-graphic work entitled The Finite Stream, a large format painting (2x20 m) in which he reconstructed the ancient technique of egg tempera by analyzing the Eastern graphic problem of Linearity from a Western painterly perspective.
Multimedia
Since 2008 he has been working on a multimedia project entitled The Invisible Cat, conceived around an imaginary painting inspired by Francisco de Goya. The project combines painting, sculpture, 3D animation and installations.
Design
He is also designer in the super-luxury car and yachting sector. In 2009 he executed a painterly intervention on the Catalan sportive car Tramontana R with a special type of metallic paint, enriched with gold and precious gems powder, making it one of the most expensive cars in the world. Based on the executive plans of the Tramontana car and of a yacht, he developed a series of mathematical sculptures, like The Golden Sea and Touch me that change color with light and the spectator's movements, shimmering from purple to cobalt blue and from gold to green.