Fernando Bellver

FERNANDO BELLVER (Madrid, 1954).
"Osito". Animados" series (ca. 2014).
Bronze sculpture, copy 21/25.
Silkscreen signed and numbered by hand.
Size: 36 x 30 x 30 cm (sculpture); 100 x 70 cm (silkscreen).
In the series "Animados", Fernando Bellver ironically recycles characters from the world of cartoons, comics and television, freely transfiguring them, ennobling them by using "noble" materials such as bronze, and hybridising them with references to historical figures or to the field of politics. Bellver thus joins the current interest in art in subverting the boundaries between high and low culture.
Fernando Bellver trained in Madrid and furthered his studies in Oslo thanks to a grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Culture. He began his career in the eighties, holding exhibitions in Madrid galleries such as Nolde and Tórculo. Around this time he participated in important fairs such as ARCO, as well as winning several prizes. In the middle of the decade he was invited to the Impact Art Festival in Kyoto, and as a professor of engraving at the University of Austin, USA. He continued to hold exhibitions in Spain, Hungary, Norway, France, England, Taiwan, the United States, etc., and between 1986 and 1987 he held a solo exhibition of works on paper at the Museum of Fine Arts in Granada. Two years later he held another personal exhibition of graphic work at the City University of New York. As part of his activity as a graphic artist, he has also been invited by the governments of Norway and Egypt to produce series on these countries. Now fully recognised internationally, Bellver has participated in fairs such as the Art Expo in New York and Basel, and has exhibited his work all over the world. In the mid-1990s he won the Gold Medal for engraving at the Alexandria Biennial, and was a member of the jury for the National Engraving Prize of the Calcografía Nacional. He is currently represented in the MNCA Reina Sofía, the ICO Collection, the Centro Conde Duque in Madrid, the Rashid Collection in Alexandria, the National Library, the Marcelino Botín Foundation, the Museums of Contemporary Art in Cairo and Jaén, the Museum of Fine Arts in Granada, New York University, the National Chalcography, the BBVA, Juan March and Chase Manhattan Bank collections and the Diputación de Sevilla, among other public and private collections.