LA GIOCONDE (1998) Painting by Juan Saenz

Born in Bogota in 1958, Juan-Manuel Saenz Espinoza studied industrial engineering at the University of America. Passionate about caricature, he created a series of three-dimensional miniatures representing walls on which satirical graffiti of absurd humor, most often political, are inscribed. He exhibited in several galleries, before leaving the country to go to France in 1988. In Albi, in his first French studio, Juan-Manuel Saenz Espinoza painted a series of portraits of historical figures from Latin America in large format, oil paintings on wood and collages of fabric, metal and everyday objects. In 1990, he settled in Lot, in Livernon. In his current studio, he creates a series of oil paintings on wood representing mythological, literary figures or borrowed from art history. Inspired by the Native American tradition of the totem, as evidenced by the format of this series, these figures are totemized to better play with the beliefs that form the basis of our collective unconscious.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1958
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary French Artists