Our residency artist for September is the Spanish painter and photographer Hugo González Aroca.
Aroca’s visual expression arises from the balance between opposites, between the figurative and the abstract, between the solid and the ethereal, between the real and the fictitious. In his work he uses small pieces of newspapers and magazines as a collage to provide both conceptual and visual information to the scene, taking advantage of different texts and images that give small clues allowing the spectator to interpret the work. One can observe the painting with a certain distance and focus on its landscape component, or approach it and look for the small messages hidden in the work, providing a horizon of meaning.
Aroca majored in Fine Arts at the Complutense University of Madrid. He also has a background in art education, and during his residency period in Ii he will hold workshops on drawing and painting for the students of the local art school.
Aroca is in residence at KulttuuriKauppila through a cooperation with THE HUG – platform for cultural cooperation, whose purpose is the creation of cultural cooperation networks between Spain and Finland.