Darío Álvarez Basso

DARÍO ÁLVAREZ BASSO (Caracas, 1966).
"Leaf".
Acrylic on cardboard.
Signed in the lower margin.
Measurements: 50 x 70 cm; 83 x 63 cm (frame).

Darío Álvarez Basso comes from a family of intellectuals and soon moved to Vigo. He studied at the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporáneo, at the New School of visual arts in New York and at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. After incursions into the world of rock and comics, in the mid-eighties and in Madrid, he dedicated himself exclusively to painting. His work mixes influences of painters such as Tàpies, or artists of the Spanish baroque or even Goya, and his beginnings are based on a strong relationship with abstract expressionism. From each and every one of his trips and stays abroad, he obtains some element on which he reflects and incorporates into his work: for example, after a trip to Morocco at the end of the eighties, he is interested in social issues; in 1989 he cleans and simplifies his Arab symbolism and begins to use more forceful forms with Hindu influence; the scholarship he received in Rome in 1990 thanks to the Spanish Academy introduced images of destruction and ruin into his work; his stay in Paris in 1991 with the Cité des Artistes Scholarship makes his chromatism sober, based on black and white, etc. Technically, he considers painting as a primitive matter, and works with his hands, integrating in his works even the elements that serve as support. He has exhibited his work in the Berger Gallery in Barcelona, in Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, United States, Cairo, Murcia, Ecuador, etc. The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Caixa-Forum Collection in Barcelona, the Ritz Carlton Collection in Miami, USA, the Serralves Foundation in Oporto, Portugal, etc., hold his work.