Beautiful, Disturbing, and Profound
“Beautiful, disturbing, and profound. That is how the painting of this Spanish artist, who exhibits in galleries and art fairs around the world, is described. He gives a twist to the portrait tradition with red images where he combines Renaissance rigor and mathematical perfection,” says American journalist Sandra Lodos about Salustiano’s work.
Artist Salustiano, born in Villaverde del Río, Sevilla, has been showcasing his work for several years in museums, galleries, and international art fairs worldwide. Highlights of his extensive curriculum include exhibitions at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, the Luma Museum in Chicago, and the Vostell-Malpartida Museum in Cáceres. He has participated in international art fairs such as Art Cologne, Armory Show in New York, Art Miami, Moscow International Art Fair, Toronto International Art Fair, ARCO, DIVA Art Fair in New York, KIAF International Art Fair in Seoul, MODERN in Munich, ART FORUM in Berlin, SCOPE Art Fair in Miami and London, among others, and in art galleries such as Kavachnina Contemporary, Brockstedt Galerie, 100 Kubik, Galerie Rafael Vostell, DNA Die Neue Aktionsgalerie in Berlin, and Leonhard Ruethmueller Gallery in Basel, among others.
He has commitments for exhibitions planned for the next two years and is preparing new projects for Shanghai, Basel, Geneva, Miami, New York, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Moscow, Munich, Berlin, Sun Valley, Seoul, and Mexico City.
Over the years, Salustiano has featured on the covers of magazines and specialized press, such as the latest issue of Arte Al Límite, Artery Berlin, MU Magazine, and the cultural weekly of the national newspaper ABC. He has also given countless interviews for radio and television. Recently, the French state channel LCI and the American television network CNN interviewed him during his stay in NYC.
Several publishing and recording companies have purchased the reproduction rights to illustrate book covers and albums with his paintings. Recently, Ángel Gabilondo, the former Minister of Education of Spain, illustrated his latest essay with one of Salustiano’s works.
Thanks to this artistic recognition, in recent years various prestigious international charitable institutions have invited Salustiano to collaborate on their projects. Among them are the Dalai Lama Foundation with the exhibition The Missing Peace, which toured several continents; the international organization Woman Together, with the exhibition “Other Meninas,” sponsored by the World Microcredit Bank of Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize laureate), actively involving the Queen of Spain; and the Cisneros Foundation with the IKF Latin American Art Auction, part of its program for child health care in Latin America.
He participated in The Missing Peace, Artist Consider The Dalai Lama, an international exhibition featuring prominent authors such as Bill Viola, Anish Kapoor, Marina Abramovic, Christo, Richard Avedon, and Sebastiao Salgado, and has toured several cities around the world since 2006, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Sydney, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw, and Miami. The exhibition was convened by two entities aiming to protect the cultural and religious identity of the Tibetan people: The Dalai Lama Foundation and the C100 One Hundred for Tibet committee – an organization formed by several Nobel laureates, state presidents, artists, and intellectuals, including Vaclav Havel, Desmond M. Tutu, Arias-Sanchez, Danielle Mitterand, and David Lynch.
Salustiano’s work “Reincarnation” was chosen as the emblematic image of the exhibition, featuring on the cover of the catalog, posters, and invitations. The portrait depicts a Chinese girl who looks at the viewer with disturbing sweetness, hiding two particular stories: that of the painter, who speculates on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in a little girl born in the country that invaded Tibet; and that of the girl, a victim of China’s family planning policy and a culture that discriminates against the birth of girls, forcing her parents to abandon her in an orphanage, waiting to be adopted by a Western family.
In Los Angeles, while the exhibition was being inaugurated, actress Sharon Stone, hostess of the show, who sat on the floor contemplating the painting for ten minutes, wanted to acquire it.
Other cultural and political personalities have Salustiano’s works in their collections. His suggestive concept of incredible beauty has seduced prestigious collectors, including William Mack, president of the Guggenheim Museum Foundation of New York; Sir Niall Fitzgerald, chairman of the British Museum and president of Reuters; Mr. Guido Westerwelle, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany; the Dalai Lama; and Barbra Streisand.
In recent months, Salustiano’s work has been rewarded with excellent results at Christie’s New York and Heritage Dallas auctions.