Pello Irazu

Andoain (Spain), 1963

Lives and works in Bilbao

Pello Irazu has been said to have renewed the contemporary sculpture in Spain and the Basque country since the beginning of his career in the 1980s. His work is a blend of constructivism, minimalism and conceptualism, mainly expressed in his sculptural works, though he also works in photography, drawing, lithography and installation art – at times combining the medias. His sculptural pieces are of a very open character, integrating different materials and utilizing various expressions.

In his more recent work he blends the two-dimensional with the three-dimensional in his combinations of sculpture, installation and photography, in the effort to blur the boundaries that traditionally separate artistic genres. In this way Irazu’s art explores the problems that arise in the multiple relations between our bodies, objects, images and spaces, as a form of performative act. It is Irazu’s main interest to explore the complex relationship between the viewers body, the artwork and the space they both occupy. The artwork becomes a starting point to go deeper into the relationship between humankind and space. In the case of Irazu’s work, space is not only the domain for thoughtful work loaded with lyricism, but also the very definition of the artists approach itself.

Pello Irazu studied fine arts at the University of País Vasco in Leonia, from 1981 to 1986, where he specialized in the study of sculpture. In 1982 he was awarded an art grant by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the following year he won a Basque sculpture prize. He won the ICARO Prize for most outstanding young Spanish artist in 1988, and a Fulbright Award in 1990.